It Continues original
by Wolf of Silver Dawn
Summary: NextGen. Years after the beginning of the Technological age, five children are now showing the world what happens when Royalty meets sugar. Along with characters we've known forever, a bunch join them: kids who drive their parents insane. Enter: RRs. REWRITTEN ON NEW ACCOUNT. DO NOT READ. PLEASE.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: Meet the kids: Sarah, the hyperactive Princess; Milo, her somewhat calmer brother; their adoptive cousins Marcus and Silas, the brothers always at each others necks, and Nora, the quieter, more responsible sister: the children of the first generation. Their lives are filled with food, fun, and annoying their parents with their continuous antics. But the3n Koran, son of Merrin, becomes Septimus' apprentice....will he pass the Test and be accepted into the pack? Will Sarah ever beat his croquet record? Most suspenseful....will Koran defeat the Bogle Bugs on steroids and not lose a limb? With the Royal Rambles, it's half adventure and half suspense, with plenty of laughs in between.  
**

**

* * *

  
**

Chapter One

All was deathly silent. Suddenly two pairs of eyes blinked open: one was violet, one green. A light was turned on and the owners of the eyes were revealed.

The one with violet eyes had very dark brown, almost black hair, and wore a small gold necklace with a ruby set into it. She wore a red tunic with a gold belt. The one next to her, with green eyes, had black hair and a lopsided smile. He wore a light blue tunic, with a gold belt like his sister. Her hair was long and draped to her shoulders, and his came down to his neck, his bangs going everywhere.

The girl whispered, "Come on, Mi, it's just down here." She jumped down from a ledge and landed. Her brother, Milo, followed.

"Sarah, I can sense something," he whispered. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. "Heartbeats—they're all around us."

The girl, who had been named after her adoptive grandmother Sarah, rolled her eyes and called out, "Silas, Nora, Marcus, we know you're down here!"

Three kids, two with green eyes and one with blue crept out from behind things. The girl, who had her mother's near-white hair and blue eyes, was wearing a simple ivory-colored tunic, with a darker belt. Her brother Silas had light tawny hair and the green eyes of someone who's been exposed to **Magyk**, along with the same tunic as Milo. Marcus looked pretty much the same, but his hair was a little bit darker and was straighter than Silas'.

The three 14-year-olds and two 13-year-olds were cousins. They called themselves 'The Royal Rambles', and stuck to it; they loved to run and were extraordinarily fast.

"Can we come with you?" asked Marcus.

"Sure." Sarah shrugged.

"We were heading for that big new Entertainment area," said Milo excitedly. "Do you know they have these awesome new games out that only play at midnight to 2:00 in the morning?"

"No" Silas said in awe. "Let's go!" Nora was the quiet, more responsible one, but she, too, could barely hold back her excitement and rushed after them.

"Hold it right there."

The kids had turned off the light and were just about to sneak out when a tall figure with bright green eyes stood in front of them. "Crap" muttered Marcus.

Their Uncle and ExtraOrdinary Wizard Septimus Heap stood in front of them as he turned on the light and showed his purple tunic and gold/platinum belt. His eyebrows were raised and he said sternly, "This is what? The third time you've tried to go out, hasn't it?" "Yeah, yeah" Sarah grumbled.

He looked at all his nephews and nieces; he didn't have any children and didn't wish to. He had no apprentice either, but that was no surprise. Everyone knew that whoever became the ExtraOrdinary Apprentice would have to go through the Test.

The Test was basically something that the Royal Rambles had made up for whoever would be the next apprentice. It involved, um, let's just say it involved various foodstuffs, a cinderblock, and a whole bunch of Bogle Bugs on steroids. Nobody wanted to go through it, so everyone was surprised when Septimus said proudly, "I've found the next ExtraOrdinary Wizard."

I guess "surprised" was an understatement. Silas fainted, Marcus' jaw dropped, Nora started twisting her face into all sorts of facial expressions, Milo blinked and yelled, "WHAT??!!" and Sarah screamed, "PREPARE THE PEANUT BUTTER!!" Septimus sighed. "I know I can't stop you from doing the Test, but please refrain from dropping a brick on anybody's head to 'Test their wimpiness.' I think you'll be surprised about who I've chosen."

"Ooh, is it anybody related to us?" asked Marcus, who was trying to wake up Silas by talking into his ear. Their uncle grinned.

"No."

"O-kay, who is it?" asked Sarah. "Well, you might recognize him. His name's Koran" said Septimus. He looked embarrassed. "I, er, knew his father. Kind of."

"Oh no, is this another one of those situations where his father's your worst enemy?" questioned Nora. Septimus slapped himself in the forehead. "You kids are amazingly perceptive" he sighed. "Well come on, look who we have in the family" snorted Milo. "Mum" he added to the puzzled look on Septimus' face. "She could always find out hidden stuff. So what does he look like?" "He's got pale skin, black hair, and green eyes, of course."

"Two questions: When's the Apprentice Supper, and do we have to go?" asked Sarah.

"One, it's tomorrow evening, and two, yes, you do. Come on, he's not bad" Septimus said coaxingly to the groaning kids. "He's about 13, so around your age, Sarah and Milo, and he's kind of quiet. He hates being judged by who his father is—was—so don't tease him about it. You'll grow to like him. Now get back to bed, you five, and don't get up again!" he said sternly.

The kids scrambled upstairs and jumped into their rooms. As soon as they turned out their lights, they all grabbed small devices that enabled them to speak to each other.

"Flower to River, do you read me?" was Sarah's first call to Nora. "I read you, Flower."

All five had code names based on their eyes. Sarah had violet eyes; she was Flower. Nora had pale blue eyes; she was River. The green-eyed boys had chosen green things: Silas was Forest, Milo was Dragon, and Marcus was Hedge (Nora and Marcus got a few laughs out of that one).

"Pass it on that we're gonna try going out from the windows. Bring your SAKs." "SAKs?" "Swiss Army Knives, duh."

The message was passed from Nora to Milo to Marcus to Silas, and they all grabbed their knives and clambered out the window. Nora knew a little **Magyk**, and so did Sarah, so once they had jumped down they all used some form of an **Unseen, Unheard Spell. **They crept through the many streets and then Silas accidentally ran into a garbage can. "YOW!" he yelped and quickly ran off, hoping nobody would notice the rattling garbage can.

They had almost gotten to the Boatyard, where they had to take a boat to the Entertainment Center, before they saw somebody taking a walk.

"Funny time for a walk" muttered Milo. "I wouldn't fancy walking alone out here for no reason."

"Why not, you do it whenever you're not working," whispered Sarah.

Marcus tripped over a pebble. He growled at it and kicked it in anger. Nora slapped her forehead and spat, "Great. Now whoever that is will be wondering how the heck a pebble just went flying down the Way."

The person turned to look at them. It was only past a first inspection that Sarah realized that he was the Apprentice.

He was thin as a stick; he obviously needed a good meal. His dark green eyes were narrowed, his black eyebrows creased. His hair was not long; it only reached to his very upper back.

The Apprentice's voice was rough and coarse, as they found out when he detected their presence. "Who's there?"

Sarah removed her own **Spell** and acted like she was throwing off a cloak with a flourish. "Only the best wood dealers this side of junk meals! With a chop-chop and a slice-slice, we'll prepare your best cheese like, um, rice!" His eyebrows rose. Following her lead, the others took off their **Spells** too.

"Who are you?" he asked warily, "and what are you doing at this time of night?"

"Going to the Entertainment center, duh. But I'm guessing that you're not just out for a little late-night walk. What are _you _doing?" Marcus shot back.

"I'm looking for the Wizard Tower. I need somewhere to spend the rest of the night and all the hotels are rubbish," Koran growled.

"Doofus, it's up there" Milo snorted and pointed somewhere behind him. When he looked around and couldn't see the golden Pyramid, he thought for a minute and waved his had in the general direction.

Koran snorted. "Sure, it's _definitely _somewhere in that deep, murky fog. How am I supposed to tell?"

"Fine, fine, we'll take you back," grumbled Sarah. Silas waved a threatening finger at him. "But we're sticking out our necks, here. Once we take you there, you have to go right in. We can't. If Uncle Sep found out we were up again, he'd ground us for a decade."

Koran's eyes widened. "You're the…_the Royal Rambles??!!_ Good grief." "Well, duh, what'd you expect?" scoffed Sarah. He looked at them. "I can only see your eyes," he said uncertainly. "Who is who?" "I'm Marcus," said one of the three boys with green eyes. "I'm Silas." "I'm Milo." "I'm Nora," said the blue-eyed girl. "And I'm Sarah, better known as the Princess or Her Majesty and all that junk" Sarah finished, her violet eyes glittering.

Koran slapped his forehead. "So, tell me, did your mother drop you when you were little, or did you do that yourself?"

"I'll ignore that."

The six put their **Spells** back on and darted back through the mazes of streets. They stopped at the Palace after Silas ran into another trash can. "Git" snorted Marcus. Silas put him in a half-nelson. "YOW!"

"Shut up!" hissed Nora.

"All right, the Wizard Tower should be right thataway." Sarah pointed north, along a wide road. "We don't have time to go to the Entertainment center now"—she pointedly glared at Koran—"so we're going to try and sleep 'till dawn. It is the weekend tomorrow, and we have to have our traditional weekend wake-up call."

"Okay, I guess. Thanks" said Koran as he stared off at the road.

"See you in my nightmares. Oh, and tomorrow" said Milo.

Koran stopped, and turned slowly. "W-what?"

"S-e-e y-o-u i-n m-y n-i-g-h-t-m-a-r-e-s. How hard is that to understand?" scoffed Marcus.

"No, the…other thing. 'See you tomorrow?'" Koran looked questionably at Milo.

Sarah remembered first. "Oh yeah, tomorrow we have to go to the Apprentice Supper. Mum, Dad, Uncle Sep, of course…." "Our Mum and Dad too" said Silas. "Oh, and a whole bunch'a ghosts. And a few more high-and-mighties."

Koran groaned. Nora thought for a moment. "Huh. That was the same thing we did when we learned we had to go." She glanced at Sarah. "Shall we organize something?"

Sarah smirked.

"Yes, yes we shall…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Hanah Potter: Their father is Beetle. I just thought it would happen, ya know? ;)**

Chapter Two

Sarah woke up the next morning at 5:00. Don't ask.

She was just tying her sash when a brilliant idea sprang into her mind.

"I'VE GOT IT!" she screamed.

If you're wondering how the parents reacted to her very, very, loud voice, well, lets just say that Silas, Marcus, and Nora's parents just snorted a bit. Sarah and Milo's father lifted his head slightly and muttered, "Where, oh WHERE did she get this from?" and fell back to sleep. Their mother barely stirred.

As you can tell, they're pretty used to it, after listening to about eight years of Sarah, Milo, Silas, Marcus, and Nora (well, not her as much) waking up on the weekends at 5:00 and shouting to wake the dead.

Sarah rushed over to Nora's room and prepared to shake her if need be, but she was already up.

"What exactly do you have?" asked Nora, rubbing her eyes.

"A splendid idea, my friend! And we shalt tell the others once they awaken!" proclaimed Sarah. She leaned down and whispered into Nora's ear. The older girl grinned. "Excellent. Perfect. Genius." "Isn't it, though?"

Sarah went back to her room to start drawing up a plan. As soon as she completed a list, she rushed out into the hall. The other four were standing there, fully awake and dressed.

"Whatcha got?" asked Marcus. She showed it to them. "Step one" read Silas. "Buy slingshots. There's a shop—" "Oh, I know that place. On the corner of Something Street and Whatchamacallit Way" said Sarah, scratching her chin as she tried to remember the names of the roads.

"Come on, let's get some breakfast," said Silas, already sprinting downstairs. The others quickly followed.

They spooned porridge into their mouths faster than Uncle Sep's dragon and raced out the door.

They didn't leave a note. They never do. Their parents know that they've just gone out for a jaunt or something.

"Let's ask directions from Uncle Sep. He'll know where it is," said Marcus. They blasted up to the Wizard Tower gates and Sarah whispered the password. As they entered the Wizard Tower, the floor read: "Welcome Royal Rambles." Milo stared at it.

"That's odd. I thought it would say, 'Welcome Apprentices, Princess, and Nora." "Yeah, I thought that was boring, so I reprogrammed it" said Sarah nonchalantly.

"How'd you reprogram it? Where do you do it?" Nora asked Sarah, who had called down the stairs and was waiting for it. "Well, you know the Ice Tunnels?" Nora nodded. "Down there, directly under the Wizard Tower, if you chip away at the ice on the top a little bit, there's a thing with a bunch of stuff written on it. I just told it to say 'Welcome Royal Rambles", and ta-da, it did."

Soon the stairs came to their floor. Silas said, "Fast" and they hopped on quick before it took them away.

There was one little problem.

It didn't move.

Marcus kicked it and screamed, "YOW!" Silas tried to push on it and Sarah helped him. Finally it started to move, really really fast.

Milo knocked on the great purple door. There was a groan and a grunt of, "Whoizzit?"

Nora asked Sarah, "Were there any other things that happened? When you reprogrammed it, I mean."

"Whe-ell, there was that one thing, but I don't know it it's worn off y—" "Good grief, you five, can't a guy get an ounce of sleep?" Septimus had opened the door and was still yawning.

"We need directions to the store that sells slingshots," said Milo.

"Mmkay. Here, I'll take you there." He pulled on his cloak and walked out the door. The snores that still came from the room showed that Koran was still asleep.

As soon as Septimus could see the floor, it read, "Welcome LegLess Invertebrate." His mouth opened and closed silently as some of the younger Ordinary Wizards giggled.

"So it _hasn't _worn off yet!" proclaimed Sarah. Septimus glared at her. She grinned sheepishly. "Hey, all I know is that I changed ours to Royal Rambles, and you became LegLess Invertebrate. Congrats."

He slapped himself in the forehead. People do that a lot when they're around Sarah.

As they jumped down from the stairs, Septimus nodded to the other Wizards and muttered the password as the group exited the Tower.

He walked them to the small store and left them there, calling behind his shoulder, "I hope Koran hasn't found his present yet."

"You got any money?" Milo asked Sarah. She fiddled around in her pockets and came out empty. "Nope." "None." "I think I've got something" said Nora, and pulled out a few half-crowns. "I have some, too" added Marcus. Pooling their money, they walked into the store.

The five came out a few minutes later with a slingshot each. "And the best part is, I got a discount 'cause I'm the Princess!" said Sarah with a grin. Silas looked at the list again. "Step two: ask Uncle Sep how much and what kind of food he's going to have at the Apprentice Supper" he read. "That's easy. Let's run and ask him." And so the Royal Rambles took off too the Wizard Tower for the second time that day. And it was only 7:00.

Marcus knocked on the purple door and this time Koran answered it. He eyed them warily. "What do you want?"

"We need to ask Uncle Sep how much and what kind of food he's having" said Nora. Septimus came to the door. "Now what?"

"Repeat: How much and what kind of food are you going to have at the Apprentice Supper?" asked Silas.

Septimus scratched his head. "I dunno, a bunch of desserts, some entrees, some drinks, and a bunch of fruit and veggies."

Milo rolled his eyes. "Be a tad more specific." "Okay, there will be pies"—Sarah gave a thumbs up to the others—"cakes, a chocolate fondue, pastries, doughnuts, crème brulee, flan, chicken soup, steak, noodles, lasagna, pizza, clams, mussels, crab, calamari, lobster, fish, oysters, soda, juice, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, oranges, apples, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, corn, and pumpkin."

Silas let out a long, slow whistle. "Yowza, that's a lot" breathed Marcus. "Sounds like a little slice of heaven to me" said Sarah with a grin. "Now, is that all?" "Yup" said Milo. "Let's go, guys."

As soon as they were outside, Silas pulled out the list. "Step thr—oh wait, there is no step three. Huh." "Well, duh, there is no need to have a step three" scoffed Nora. "All we have to do is wait."

And wait they did. But not silently, oh no, nothing with the Royal Rambles is ever silent. I don't even believe that word is in their vocabulary.

For the next 11 hours, they went into the forest and annoyed their other, much older, cousins, sat on a bench and discussed whether licorice was better than custard, got hold of a microphone and broadcasted the end of the world across the Castle (therefore making people panic), caused mayhem in the Manuscriptorium by knocking over at least five stands and 13 desks (one of the scribes sighed and asked his friend where the kids got their hyper/weirdness from, to which his friend replied, "Maybe a bit from Milo and Sarah's father."), built a 6-foot sculpture of a wolf out of toothpicks, and finally danced to music for an hour and a half.

"Whew! So much craziness in one day. I'm gonna pass out" wheezed Marcus. Nora agreed.

The Royal Rambles had barely anytime to relax before Milo and Sarah's mother poked her head in. "Come on, kids, it's time to go."

Sarah winked at the others and groaned. "Why do we have to go?" "Because Septimus is your uncle. And I'm sure you'll get to know Koran a bit better." "Big whoop" she grumbled.

As they walked to the Wizard Tower, Sarah reviewed her plans with the other four. The five rehearsed it, and then, grinning like some demented zombies, they zipped inside the Tower.

The Apprentice Supper was held in the Dining Hall. The families piled in and Silas made stupid faces at Kaia, his 17-year-old cousin. She rolled her eyes and pointedly turned to talk to her brother Max. Food was already on the table and Milo was staring at it. "Um, Mi? You're drooling."

As Sarah settled down in a chair next to her brother and Nora, she glared at Koran, her violet eyes narrowing into tiny purple slits. He glared back, green light in his slits. She made a scoffing noise and looked away. She struck up a conversation with Milo and they were arguing about the best way to TP a house when Septimus interrupted.

"We gather here tonight to welcome the next ExtraOrdinary Apprentice." Most of the others clapped. As you might expect, the Royal Rambles just slapped their hands together once and went back to their conversations. "A-HEM" Septimus cleared his throat and they grinned sheepishly and stopped talking. "And now, Koran…"

Sarah hissed, "Get out your slingshots!" to the others, and they pulled them out of their pockets. "…I would like to formally ask you…" "Grab some food!" she whispered. "…is it your wish to become my apprentice?"

Koran had not even opened his mouth when Sarah jumped up on the table and screamed, "FOOD FIGHT!"

She began by shooting a pie at Koran and then food flew everywhere. Milo undershot a cabbage into some guys face, Silas and Marcus shoved cakes in each others faces, and Nora dumped a juice bottle all down a ghost. As this made him feel like he was made of juice, he began to feel very ill.

Even Milo and Sarah's father joined in the fun, until the look on his wife's face warned him to stay back. But Septimus had no wife to stop him and he flung food all over the place. Koran shrugged after looking at the ExtraOrdinary, and then he tossed a flan back at Sarah. She blocked it with a plate and jumped until she stood in front of him, then smirked and dumped a soup on his head. He blew a noodle out of his face and picked up a doughnut to throw, but quicker than he thought possible she was at the other side of the room, having a spoon battle (with ridiculously large spoons that probably came from the fondue pot) with Milo.

_The fondue pot._

_If I had that, I…I'd be able to master any of them._

Koran lunged forward and grabbed the pot, some chocolate sloshing up on his green tunic as he lugged it across the room.

Sarah and Milo had given up their spoon fight and were now dumping mashed potatoes into everybody's hair. Totally unsuspecting, right?

Wrong.

Koran finally got behind Sarah, and lifted it above his head, ready to dump it on her. But then a drip of chocolate plopped onto her shoulder. She turned around, grinned sweetly, and then grabbed the fondue pot and slopped it all over Koran. She ran off guffawing and screaming, "IT'S A CHOCOLATE MONSTER!!!"

Koran gritted his teeth to keep from swearing some colorful oaths.

All the other Royal Rambles were laughing their heads off.

That ended the food fight, and then Septimus asked Koran again if he accepted the position of ExtraOrdinary Apprentice, and he did. This time, everybody clapped. They looked stupider with mashed potatoes in their hair, and someone had stuck a carrot in Nora, Silas, and Marcus' fathers ear.

As the Royal Rambles walked home, Nicko was still chortling. His wife rolled her eyes at him and snapped, "Honestly, Nicko, it wasn't that funny!" "But it was " he chuckled. "That was the most fun I've had in years."

Jenna looked down sternly at the kids. "You do know you're grounded, right?" "Oh yes, we figured that out early on" said Sarah cheerfully. "We decided to not waste time yelling and screaming this time." "Good."

She grinned. "But we'll have a lot of fun next week. Or next month." Milo snorted. "Whichever we get."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The sun rose on a quiet morning. Mourning doves called from the trees and sparrows twittered their songs.

Koran woke up from an awful nightmare. Panting and gasping, he whipped his head around. "Whew!" He wiped the sweat from his forehead and then Septimus came in, rubbing his eyes.

"Have a good sleep?"

"Ugh, no. I dreamt that today was the day that the Royal Rambles' grounding expires" Koran groaned.

Septimus glanced at the calendar. "What do ya know, it _is _the day they get off their grounding. Huh."

"WHAT?!"

Koran's eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped. Forgetting his tiredness, he started running around the room screaming, "AUGH! AUGH! AUGH!"

Septimus grinned. "Calm down, Koran. It's only 7:00. They shouldn't come over at this time."

About five seconds later, there was a banging on the door and a bunch of different voices.

"Hey, Uncle Sep! You awake?" "He might not be." "But he's a light sleeper, he'd get up from the knocking." "We need to start the Test at exactly 8:00, though. We need to get Koran out for preparation." "UNCLE SEP!"

Koran raised his eyebrows at his mentor. Septimus shrugged and called, "Okay, kids." When he saw Koran's eyes wide with disbelief, he added, "Get dressed, Koran."

About five minutes later, Koran opened the door. "Sheesh, finally!" grumbled Sarah. "Come on, today we test your brains."

He cast a last pleading look at Septimus before he left the room.

Once the six were outside, Sarah turned around and glared daggers at Koran. "Listen, bub, you don't like us and we don't like you. But you need to go through the Test and you _are_ going to cooperate. _Got it?_" She poked him in the nose. He rubbed it, irritated, and muttered, "I guess so." "Good."

Sarah rolled out a length of parchment and she studied it intently. The others did too. Koran decided to stay put, not wanting his nose poked again.

"Okay" said Sarah with a wicked grin. "Your first question: what is 14 multiplied by Pi?" "Uhhh…." "BEEP! Too late! You owe me five pieces of bacon!" screeched Sarah. Milo cracked up.

Koran rolled his eyes. "All right, second question: if there are three boxes of Cheez-its, and the six of us, and there are 50 Cheez-it's a box, how many Cheez-its do we each get?" He had the answer immediately. "25 Cheez-its each." He crossed his arms and sat back, grinning.

"BOOP! Wrong answer! What makes you think that we would give you any Cheez-its?" Sarah said like a game show host. "And then there's the fact that Marcus loves to eat, and he'd probably get into a fight with Silas trying to get all of his. Marcus would win, because he's stronger"—"Hey!" exclaimed Silas indignantly—"and he would eat all of Silas'."

Koran slapped himself in the forehead. "What is the _point _of this?!" he grumbled. Sarah shrugged. "To torture you." "Whoopee. So how many more questions?"

Nora inspected the sheet of parchment. "342."

"D'oh!"

_Much later…._

"And finally, what does 'Kachili bykornik' mean in Binlindish?" Koran was half-asleep and with a snort, he jolted awake. "Slurp my snot?"

"Wrongo, it means 'Big fat loser', which you are. All righty Nora, what's the next question?"

"Ummm…." Nora scanned the parchment. "That was the last question."

"Woohoo!" Koran cheered, fully awake. "So how did I do?"

One of Sarah's eyebrows raised at the checklist that Milo had been using. "You got three right." "And out of all those ridiculous questions that only you could get right, that's like 100%. So can I go home?"

He started running away before she answered. "Whoa, hold your horses" said Sarah, grabbing him by the back of his shirt. "First you have to answer the 30 bonus questions."

He let out a groan. This was going to be one long week.

* * *

The next day, he was subjected to a bunch of pranks, to test how quick he could think. He ended up being slapped in the face by a paralyzed chicken, run into by a herd of cows, gotten the classic pie-in-the-face (along with the bonus of pie-down-the-pants), chased into a random persons house by Septimus' rampaging dragon after taking a bath with beef tallow soap, and fallen down a hole (the best part was that it was in the Forest and we didn't let him out until midnight!—Sarah).

He went back to the Wizard Tower beaten and bruised and the Royal Rambles were grounded for two days.

* * *

On Wednesday, they tested his wits by putting him in different positions while Sarah insulted him. It was pretty much an excuse to call him names.

She would glare at him as fiercely as she could, even though he was about six inches taller than her.

"Whew! Is it just you, or did you not brush your teeth this morning?"

"Uhh…."

"And furthermore, your mother wears army boots."

"I don't have a mom."

"I've seen better hair in a shower drain!"

"Umm…"

"I just sold your pants to the circus. They're going to make a tent."

"Are you implying that—"

"Is that your face, or did your pants fall down?"

"_O-KAY, YOU'RE COMING THIS CLOSE TO CROSSING THE LINE!!"_

"How do you keep a dummy in suspense for twenty-four hours?"

"I don't know."

"I'll tell you _tomorrow_!"

"Um, Sarah, I think we should back away slowly" warned Milo.

Koran had steam coming out of his nostrils and ears, his hair was on fire, and his eyes were wide and bloodshot.

Sarah took her brother's advice.

Like you wouldn't.

* * *

On Thursday, they tested his strength.

"He should be coming soon" said Nora, looking across the field. They had borrowed it for the day for the strength part of the test.

"All righty, bull?"

Marcus and Silas turned their heads to look at the barn that was locked for good reasons. There was a lot of shrieking, booming, and crashing inside. Their heads turned back to Nora and they grinned. "Check."

Nora made a mark on her clipboard and looked towards Sarah. "Steroids?"

Sarah pointed to the barn. Hay had been put in there earlier.

Nora made another mark. "Check."

Milo ran back from the North Gate. "He's coming." "Good."

When Koran finally got there, Sarah clapped her hands. "Okay, student, today we will test your strength. All you have to do is enter that barn and deal with what you find there."

Koran glanced at the barn, which was almost jumping out of the ground, and raised his eyebrows. "Are you _trying_ to get me killed?" he asked Sarah.

She shrugged. "Dunno." "What do I get if I pass the Test?" "Buddy, you get to become one of the Royal Rambles. You can help us play pranks, have fun, and, um, play more pranks. You get to annoy older people, run through ghosts, and blow all your money on candy. Basically, heaven on Earth."

He looked at her doubtfully. "And you won't keep trying to kill me?" "Nah. Royal Rambles don't prank each other." "Oh goody."

Taking a deep breath, Koran entered the barn.

"Okay, nice bull…YOW! My OUCH! YAK! AAAIEEE! SCREECH! GASP! OWOWOWOW HOMINA HOMINA HOMINYEOW!!!"

Everyone outside clutched their sides in laughter.

* * *

On Friday, Koran's speed was tested.

"This is the easiest this week" said Sarah grandly, spreading her arms. She pointed to the Badlands. "All you have to do is run to the base of the rocks in the Badlands and come back in the space of exactly 24 hours or less."

He stared out there. "This is the _easiest_?" "Yeah, you can have breaks" said Milo, sipping a lemonade. "Just meet us at that hotel when you get back." He pointed to something that belonged in Las Vegas: it had a gambling room, three pools and a hot tub, and free room service.

Koran shrugged and took off, his black hair blowing out behind him. He ran very fast, and his feet were a blur as he soon was a speck on the edge of their visions.

Sarah grinned wickedly. "Milo, I do hope you remembered to put the dynamite in the Wyrm holes."

As she spoke, a large _BOOM_ echoed throughout the Sheeplands and a great explosion of dust and rocks was expelled into the air. An eyebrow raised on Marcus, Silas, and Nora.

Milo grinned back and gave her a thumbs up. "Check."

* * *

Sarah snapped her fingers and a waiter came over. "Yes, Princess? What would you like? Another pillow? More soda? A cake or two?" She pointed at her bed since her mouth was too full of steak to answer.

"Ah, another pillow! Be right back, your Highness!" The waiter bowed and rushed off.

Nora clinked her soda with Sarah's. "This was a great idea" she said, and then curled her lip as Marcus let out a loud _BELCH_. "I wasn't aware you had this much money."

Sarah smirked. "My dear friend, haven't you ever heard of C.O.D?" She frowned. "No…"

She held up a receipt. "Septimus and Dad are gonna pick us up. Cash On Delivery, Nora, will save us." "Yeah, but then we get grounded for the second time this week" Marcus pointed out before he belched again.

There was a knock on the door. The doorman opened it and a ragged figure walked in, his green eyes wild and black hair everywhere. He sat down and put his face in his hands.

Sarah picked up a cupcake and shoved it in his face. "Here, eat."

There were munching sounds, and then a gulp, and then a growl. "If you think that I thought that the gathering of hungry Wyrms out there was a coincidence, you're even stupider than I thought, and believe me—" "Chiw, duge" said Silas after shoving a whole cake slice in his mouth. "W' knew you would figger it ou' in tym."

Koran blinked. "What?"

Nora rolled her eyes. "He said that we knew you would know it wasn't an accident."

Silas let out a low grumble and swallowed with some difficulty. "What I _said_, dear sister, was 'Chill, dude. We knew you would figure it out in time.'"

"Fine, _be_ specific" Nora retreated to a fireplace and ate a cracker, lost in thought.

"Sheesh. Who can fathom the female mind?" asked Silas to Marcus. The darker-haired boy shrugged and burped.

"Perhaps a boy who's _LIVED WITH A GIRL HIS WHOLE STINKING LIFE!!"_

Koran slapped his hand over his mouth, looking terrified. "Did I say that out loud?"

"That would be an understatement" commented Sarah, who was picking pieces of popcorn out of her teeth with a toothpick.

Silas raised an eyebrow. "So why did you say that, anyway?" Koran shrugged. "Dunno. I just thought it, and—" "Screamed it" yawned Sarah. She tried to get up, but she hadn't stood in about seven hours, and so she sat back down.

"Standing up is overrated." "That's very nice, Sarah, you go on thinking that."

She cleared her throat. "Anyway, student, did you complete this part of the Test? If you did, there's only one part left, but to finish preparing for that we need to go to Great-Aunt Zelda's…"

Koran nodded. "Just barely, thought. There was this one Wyrm—" "Kill the details, sister, we're hungry and I want to move to a reclining chair" said Milo, and scrabbled for a slice of cake only to find out that Silas had eaten it all. "HEY!"

Sarah chuckled. Evilly. Which is never a good sign.

"Ah, the final phase" she said in a low voice with a smirk on her face. "The hardest—and funniest, to the spectators—part of the Test. And then we will see, Student Koran, just who will be laughing."

She chuckled evilly for a few more seconds and then added. "It won't be you, just to clear that up. Hee hee hee….."

**A/N: Nora, Marcus, and Silas are now 14 instead of 15. I'd also like to thank you guys for such nice reviews. I'm glad you like this story (I sure like typing it) and I hope you will enjoy the sequel, ****And They All Grew Up****, as well, though it will be slightly less funny and will focus more on different POVs. Don't worry; this won't be ending anytime soon.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

It was late morning across the land, and a figure in red was walking to the boatyard. She whistled as she walked, and occasionally kicked a pebble or scratched an itch. Totally innocent.

Wrong.

As soon as she reached the boatyard, she looked around for her Uncle Nicko. But looking didn't do much good, so she tried a second option.

"UNCLE NICKO!!!"

A man with his ears covered and a grimace on his face walked out of a shed. "Mmm? Oh, hi Sarah."

Sarah pulled a length of parchment out of a pocket, looked at it, and then said, "Yes, yes, hi, skip the chit-chat, I need to borrow a boat."

Nicko sat down on a bench and rested his chin on his hand. "Why, exactly, do you need a boat? Oh no—not a remake of the squid incident." Sarah shook her head. "No, I need to go to Great-Aunt Zelda's."

"Why?" Nicko asked. Sarah thought for a moment, and then said, "It's part of the Test." Nicko shook his head. "That poor kid. What did he ever do to you?" "Hey, it's the rules, buddy." "That you just so happened to have created yourself." "Expect to be glued to your bed tomorrow morning."

Nicko shook his head again. "No, I'm not going to let you borrow a boat. You don't even know how to work one!" Sarah pointed somewhere behind him. "He does."

"Hi, Sarah!" A kid her age was untangling himself from some rope as he tried to make his way over to uncle and niece. He had a stocky build and short dusty brown hair, and his eyes were a brilliant gold. He had a lopsided grin that showed on his face whenever he was pleased, and a black armband.

"'Lo, Rack" Sarah greeted him. Her face got serious. "Hey, Rack, do ya think you could take me and a few friends to the Marram Marshes tomorrow?" "Sure thing, Sarah" he said with that crooked grin. She turned her head to smirk at Nicko and said, "Thanks, I owe you one."

Before Nicko could tell her anything, she darted off along the way, turning off at a corner.

Rack stared after her. Nicko slapped him on the shoulder. "Get to work, kid. If you wanna have this week's pay, seeing as you'll be gone tomorrow, you need to get a lot of work done." Rack shook his head and jumped at his orders. "Yes, sir, I'll get right to it."

Sarah met her brother and cousins at the Palace. "Well?" asked Marcus, jumping out from a bush. "And you were wrong. That plant makes me itch." He scratched his leg for effect.

Nora slapped herself in the forehead. "That's because it's _poison ivy_, oh smart one." Silas snorted and Milo stifled a chuckle. Marcus frowned.

"Anyway, yes, we're going tomorrow." "Good" said Milo. "So who's taking us?" "Rack, the boatyard apprentice" Sarah replied. "How come Dad's not taking us?" asked Silas. Sarah shrugged. "Dunno."

"How come Rack agreed to take us, then?" wondered Marcus, scratching his arm. Silas snorted again. "Dude, haven't you noticed? He's heads over heels for Sarah." Milo and Nora started laughing and Sarah raised her eyebrows. "Huh. Well, you better start packing, cause it's early winter and we might get snowed in."

Silas did a salute and he rushed to his room. The others did so as well.

Sarah looked through her closet. She tossed about five identical tunics into her suitcase and then her notebook, a whoopee cushion, some fake barf, a length of rope, and a whole lot of money.

Nora packed everything Sarah brought, but with different pranks.

Silas brought the same. So did Marcus. So did Milo.

Watch out, Great-Aunt Zelda. Poor person.

Milo was sent to the Wizard Tower with a message. He went up the stairs and knocked on Septimus' door. He heard something explode and someone swore. "Well, there goes that one."

Septimus opened the door. He looked at Milo. "Come for Koran?" he asked. "I thought you had to go to Aunt Zelda's." "We do" replied Milo, "and he needs to come with us."

Koran walked up beside his mentor. His hair was smoking, his eyes were wide, and his face was covered in soot. "I need to do what now?" Septimus hesitated; "I guess I could let him off" he decided. He turned to Koran. "Get packed, you're leaving soon." Koran promptly fainted. Milo swiveled on his feet and left.

Meanwhile, Sarah was plotting. So far, she had written down:

Prank One: Before the Mott Closes

Step One: Tie one end of rope into circle big enough for leg. Loop it over a tree near the Mott, and have Marcus, Silas, and Milo hold the other end.

Step Two: Nora lures Koran outside, by the tree, and makes sure he steps in the rope. Ma, Si, and Mi pull until he's high up. Make sure that the Python is by the tree.

Step Three: Sarah grabs a plank of wood and gets joined by Nora. Silas grabs some scissors, and Sarah and Nora slam Koran into Mott immediately after Silas cuts rope. Python attacks. We all laugh hysterically.

Poor Koran.

Milo passed a message to her by means of their wall openings. "Dragon to Flower, do you read me?" "I read you, Dragon. Well?" "Uncle Sep agreed. Do you know when we're going to leave?" "I don't know, I guess I'll send somebody down to ask Rack."

Sarah went to her other wall opening and said, "Flower to River, do you read me?" There was a pause, and then: "I read you, Flower. What do ya need?" "Can you go down to the Boatyard and ask Rack when we're leaving tomorrow?" "Sure—hang on, Marcus wants to talk to me."

Nora was quiet, and then came back and said, "Marcus says that you should go down again. He wants to see Rack faint." Sarah rolled her eyes. "Hardy har har. Let's glue him to his bed tomorrow too." "Yeah. Wait, who else are you going to glue to their bed?"

Sarah didn't answer, and so Nora left. She walked down to the Boatyard and saw her father hammering away at something. "Hi, dad!" she called. Nicko looked up and grinned at Nora. "Heya, kid. Whatcha need?" "I need to talk to Rack." "Rack? Oh, he's just in the shed." "Okay."

But then Rack walked out of the shed, his golden eyes flashing in the sun, and tripped over a bucket. "Who?" he asked, looking up. "Just me" said Nora. "Sarah sent me to ask you when we were leaving tomorrow." "Oh, I think we're leaving at seven. But if that's a problem…" "No, that's fine. We usually wake up at five or 5:30 anyway, and we're all packed. See ya tomorrow."

Nora darted off across the Boatyard and shot along the Way as Rack scratched his head. "She looks like you. She's got your face" he said to Nicko. He nodded. "She's my daughter." "Oh."

Nora brought the message back for Sarah. And then the Princess had an idea.

A terrible, sneaky, down-right _rotten_ idea.

An idea so horrible, so terrifying, that just a mere _mention_ of it would chill all your hearts.

But did she listen to us? Noooo.

"I think we should have a going-away party." Nora blinked, and then shouted, "Sarah, it's 2:00 in the afternoon! We wouldn't have all the invitations out by 6:00! And where are we going to get the money to rent a stage, a karaoke machine, a whole lot of food, and tables in four hours?!"

Sarah grinned and fingered a $1000 bill. "Oh, I'm sure we'll find a way…."

Hoo boy.

**A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, this is just a follow-up to the shopping (Chap 5) and the party (Chap 6) and finally going to Great-Aunt Zelda's (Chap 7).**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Sarah divided up the cash between her little group of hell-raisers: Silas to the candy shop, Marcus to the building renters, Nora to the furniture salesmen (she said she could use the tables and chairs once the party was over), Milo to the general store, Koran to the place on the corner where they sell disco balls and karaoke machines, and she went to negotiate the terms with her parents.

Silas whistled as he pushed open the door to the candy store. He looked at all the different types and started drooling. He handed over some cash and bought a bunch of everything.

Marcus went into a store that said, "Kir's Buildings" and asked to rent a hall for four hours, not counting set-up time. He was given a wide hall with a stage and a bunch of fridges. "I'll take it" said Marcus and forked over $300.

Nora bought three tables and ten chairs for $500, then rented a truck to drive the furniture to the building. Marcus called her on his cell phone to tell her where to go.

Milo sauntered into the general store and bought soda, tortilla chips, potato chips, bottled water, cocktail weenies, tiny sandwiches and other little finger foods.

Koran chose a disco ball that was already multicolored, so it would flash even more lights. He got a karaoke machine that had almost every song the group liked.

And now we come to Sarah. Oh great.

Sarah knocked on her parents door and saw them talking about taxes. "Umm….mom? Dad? Can I ask you a question?" Jenna smiled. "Ask away." "Woulditbeokayifwehadapartytonight?" Sarah asked in one breath. Jenna slapped her forehead. Then Sarah's phone rang.

"Hello? Oh, hi Marcus. Mmm-hmm. Corner of Broadway and Sassafras. Big building with 'Party Tonight" sign on it. Gotcha. See ya."

She closed the phone and Jenna sighed. "You've already rented a building, gotten party food, furniture, and other stuff, haven't you?" "Yeah" said Sarah nonchalantly.

"Seeing as I can't stop you now, go ahead," said Jenna as she rolled her eyes. "WAHOO!!" Sarah ran outside and screamed to all the poor saps in hearing distance, "WE GET TO HAVE A PARTY!!!!"

"Maybe I shouldn't have told her that" muttered Jenna. Her husband patted her on the back. "Relax. We'll make them invite Sep, he'll keep them under control."

So Jenna yelled out the window, "Be sure to invite your uncle!" "Gotcha!" Sarah yelled back, and then she rushed off. "AND YOUR COUSINS!!" "Great."

She knocked on Septimus' door. "Yeallo?" he said, poking his head out. "Oh, hi Sarah. What do ya need?" "Mom says we have to invite you to our party to"—she made quotation marks with her fingers—"'keep us under control.'" "Cool. So what time do I come over?" "Hmm, maybe about 6:00?" "Kay. See you then."

She was about to leave when Septimus asked, "Hey, the floor stopped calling me 'LegLess Invertebrate'. Do you know why?" Sarah thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, I did reprogram it again to say 'Whazzup Incredibly Cool Royal Rambles', but apparently it didn't affect your thingy this time." She raised one leg, spun around, and asked, "Why, did you _like_ being called 'LegLess Invertebrate?" "I was kind of getting used to it."

Three floors down, an old and very distinguished Ordinary Wizard by the name of Maxwell Roberts was entering the Wizard Tower. The floor hastened to greet him by the words, "Welcome, You Fat, Ugly Pig." Poor Mr. Roberts gaped at the floor and the younger Wizards and Apprentices giggled. But the floor continued with the words, "Are You Standing On Your Head? 'Cause Your Face And Butt Are Mixed Up." Some Apprentices exploded in laughter. He turned around and swore loudly at them. That pretty much made them shut up, and look at Mr. Roberts like he was a demon or something.

Septimus had closed the door, but Sarah was laughing so hard she was shaking. "So that's what happened!" she exclaimed, and then sat on the rim of the stairs, and slid down.

The group met at the party building. "Well, we've got exactly 2.6 hours left" remarked Silas, looking at his watch. Sarah clapped her hands. "Then let's get ready."

It took the next few hours to set up the tables and karaoke machine, stock the coolers with sodas, juice, and water, screw the disco ball in, install the dance floor, and dump all the food on the tables.

Who drinks water at parties, anyway? 45-year-olds, I guess. I mean, any kid would want to get as much sugar in their blood as possible.

Oh, I am so glad I'm not Jenna, Beetle, Nicko, or Snorri. They're gonna have to give the kids sedatives to get them to sleep.

Anyway, once all the stuff was set up, Sarah, Nora, Silas, and Milo ran off to tell their invitees.

Their argument about who should go where went something like this:

"I think Nora should go to our cousins." "Oh no you don't, I went _last_ party! You go!" "Well, I'm not going. I remember what happened last time I went over." "Maybe if you hadn't brought your 'Fart-in-a-Can*'…" "Sarah has to go and invite Rack. Here, catch it on videotape. I can hear it now: 'Whaaaa….'" "Shut up or that video camera will go where you really don't want it." "Hee hee." "You shut up, Silas, or it's going up yours." "Mommy." "Fine, I'll go to the cousins, Sarah gets Uncle Sep, Silas gets Rack, and Nora gets Kaz, Vic and Ryou" Milo settled.

Kazzan, Victor, and Ryou were a few Wizard Apprentice friends of Marcus, Nora, and Silas.

"How come Sarah—" Silas began, but then Sarah kicked him in the—

"Ouch." "That must hurt." Sarah wore a smug grin as Silas hopped up and down, letting out odd choking noises. Some sounded like curses.

Milo paid 2 bucks to hitch a ride on a horse-and-cart that was going out of town, past the Forest. He jumped out and went into that mass of trees. He glanced anxiously up at the branches, hoping that none would break and knock him out like the last time he had been in there**.

When he reached the clearing where his four cousins lived, he called out, "Anybody home?" He looked around. There was Kia and Shian. "Oh, it's Milo. What do you want?" asked Kia warily. "Just a party invite, but since you appear to be busy…" he trailed off with a sneaky smirk. "PARTY INVITE??!! AUGH, I'VE GOT TO TAKE A SHOWER!!" "ME TOO!!" The two teenage girls rushed off as their brothers stepped in. "Milo?" asked Rick. "That's me." Drake pointed at the place where the girls had vanished. "Any reason that they're crazier than usual?" "Party tonight" answered Milo. "And dad made us invite you guys." "Ah. We'll be there."

Silas walked nonchalantly to the boatyard, where he saw his father. "Hey dad" he said, waving. "Silas, kid. What can your old man do for you?" Nicko asked, leaning on a boat that promptly tipped over. "HEAP! PUT THAT BACK UP!" "Okay, Jannit." Nicko struggled to push the boat back up and then Silas said, "I'm looking for Rack." "Oh, why?" "Party invite." "I presume you got permission." "From Sarah and Milo's parents, yes. And I don't think you can refuse." Nicko grinned. "How does that work?" Silas looked into his dad's eyes and said slowly, "Cocktail weenies." "WOOHOO!!" cheered Nicko, jumping into the air. "HEAP! STOP THAT RACKET AND GET BACK TO WORK!!" "Yes, Jannit."

He turned and called into the shed, "Rack!" There was an explosion noise from inside it and then Rack was flung out into the water. When he got up, there was seaweed all over him. He hurriedly brushed it off and ran back on the dock. "Yes, Nicko?" "Kid's here for ya." Rack's eyes lit up and he promptly tripped over a bucket and fell flat on his face. "YOWohfrickinOWOWOW—Hi Silas—OWOWferheaven'ssakeYOWOWgeezOW&^$# *& #%^MOMMY!!!"

He clapped his hands over his mouth. "Did I say that out loud?" "Yes, you did." "Great."

Silas said, "We're having a party tonight if you wanna come." Rack looked at Nicko. "Don't look at me like that, ask Jannit." Rack turned back to Silas. "Who's gonna be there?" "Well, the RRs, of course—hey, where'd he go?" Nicko swiveled and locked his eyes on a human-shaped shadow by the main boatyard building. Silas scratched his head. "Did he just go 30 yards in half a second?" "I don't know, you went to school and learned physics." "Actually, that was Marcus."

Meanwhile, Sarah was down in the Ice Tunnels, reprogramming the floor again. "Let's see, 'Whazzup Omnipotent and All-Amazing Incredibly Cool Royal Rambles.' Yeah, that works." With that, she felt for a whistle around her neck and blew. A sled rounded a corner and stopped in front of her. But this wasn't just any sled. This was the Palace Sled.

The Palace Sled had been made by order of Jenna before Sarah was born. It was made of beautifully designed red-painted wood with inlets of rubies and amethysts, and gold finish made it glow even in the desolate Ice Tunnels. Sarah hopped on and slid along the Tunnels until she reached the arch that marked the Wizard Tower. She tied the sled and strode confidently across the ground, forgetting that it was solid ice.

_Splat_. "Oop! Son of a…"

Rubbing her nose, she went more carefully.

A few slips and splats later, she was in the Tower. She grinned as the new words showed up and laughed as she saw some kid being called "Grand King of the Farts."

She spun wildly up the stairs and knocked on the purple door. Septimus looked out, looked down, and saw Sarah. "You again?" "You need to come now." "Okay, I'll just get ready." He closed the door and she yelled, "NO FANCY CLOTHES! THIS IS A _PARTY_!!" She heard a chuckle and then pulled out her cell phone to check the time.

"_5:35_??!! AUGH!!" She banged on her uncles door. "Hurry up, you lazy lump!!" He finally came out, wearing a simple purple tunic that registered his authority, but didn't overdo it. "Geez, you took forever. Come on."

I'll not go into details about how Nora got her friends, seeing as this chapter is already supremely long, but they are coming.

The group of kids, teenagers, and adults met in front of the building. "Lardies and germs, welcome to the party event of the…" Marcus checked the date on his watch. "….week!" "For this party, we have a new person: the new ExtraOrdinary apprentice. You can call him Koran." "Hi" said Koran with a wave, and, hard to believe, he was actually excited. He also kept glancing over at something.

Your good friend Wolf would try to find out, but Koran would probably beat her to a pulp.

Come to think of it, Rack keeps glaring at Koran, too. Odd. What'd Koran do?

"So please step inside, and get ready to have the time of your week!" Marcus finished. "Actually, it's 'time of your life', you dork" Kia said, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, but we're having another party in a few weeks, you ignorant chicken-brain."

With a sweep of Marcus' arms, Silas and Milo opened the doors, and the people gazed upon the magnificence of the thing that is the party.

* * *

* Two and a Half Men ripoff :D

** Only I can understand this ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: EDIT. I don't are if you review, I'm going to keep writing, I DON'T NEED THIS TORTURE!!! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW BORED I'VE BEEN!!!  
**

**

* * *

**

Chapter Six

The party was a blast. Food, music, dance floor, soda…what more could you ask for?

Sarah was casually strolling through the crowds, occasionally waving to friends. As she yelled a joke after Silas' retreating back, she bumped into someone.

"Hey, watch out who you're crashing into, you fat—oh, hi Koran." He let out a grunt and said, "Why exactly are we having a party?" Sarah shrugged and started snapping her fingers as a good song came on. "Come on, kid, get with the program. We have a party at least every two weeks." Koran rolled his eyes.

The black-haired kid smiled as the song grew louder. "What is this?" he asked, gesturing at the multiple speakers. Sarah shrugged again. "I dunno, ask Marcus. He was supposed to be manning that stereo—so what the HECK is he doing over there!?"

Marcus was drinking punch and chatting with Kazzan, obviously not paying attention when Sarah walked over and grabbed his collar. "Sarah, what the frink—" "Why aren't you working the stereo?" she demanded, shaking him. "Oof! And I thought I was the heavyweight. What's the big deal? Rack wanted to work it, so I let him. He actually paid me to let him do it! Check it out--" Marcus held up some bills. "—five sweet dollars."

Sarah sighed and snatched the money. "You don't deserve that—YOINK!" Laughing, she darted through Kia and Shian blabbing about something, and stopped by the curtains to the back. She walked through and heard some muttering. "Now, if I want it to play this, I have to insert the CD and then press the triangle—oh, wait, that's a square. Hmm. Oh, this is stupid! Why can't I just walk up to—Sarah, what are you doing up here?!"

His eyebrows shot straight up and he clutched the CD to his chest. Sarah met his gaze evenly. "What, am I not allowed to come up here? I guess you don't want your money back, then." "Huh? No, give." She tossed the bills over her shoulder and added, "You're a guest. So get off the machine, that's Marcus' job." "I-I just—" "What? Spit it out." She stared at him, and Sarah saw his pupils go from large to tiny specks in the golden irises.

"I want to do karaoke," he mumbled. "But I'm, uh…" "Shy, yeah, everybody gets the heebidibajeebies. You just gotta walk up there and do it."

Rack nodded and got up, walking to the curtains.

But then he slipped. And fell.

"Ow!" He winced. "I think I twisted my ankle." "Try and stand on it," suggested Sarah. Rack grabbed on to a table but his face immediately twisted in pain. "I can't. It hurts." He fell again. Sarah held out a hand. "Come on" she said, "I'll take you to Uncle Sep." He stared at her and his mouth dropped open.

"Well, don't just sit there, get up or do you want to rot?" "I'm coming" he said hastily, and grabbed her hand. Surprised at her strength, he allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. She yelled, "UNCLE SEP!!" down the steps, and soon his head poked through. "What's up?" "I twisted my ankle," said Rack through gritted teeth, and Septimus frowned. "Come on, kid, I'll get you to someone." He led Rack off and Sarah looked after him for a minute, and then muttered. "Ankle, pah. Only part of it" and walked down the stairs.

* * *

Meanwhile, Koran was eating a cocktail weenie and staring off into space as a slower song came on. Some kid sat next to him. "Hey, you're Koran, right?" He looked over. "Yeah" he said. The kid grinned. "I'm Rian. I think I've seen you before, or someone like you." The kid was about 15, with scraggly tawny hair and bright green eyes. He wore a gray tunic and a gold belt. His eyebrows were slanted. Koran frowned. He was sure he knew this Rian, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Who are your parents?" Koran asked. Rian shrugged. "I dunno. I work at the boatyard, 'cause my uncle works there too, and he lets me live with him. He's pretty stone-hearted, but he's funny too." "Hmm, what's his—" "Hey, Rian!" The 15-year-old turned his head and waved at a few friends. "See ya, Merrin, I mean Koran." "Wait!" Koran called. "Do you know a kid named Rack?" But Rian was gone. "Huh!" Koran grunted, and went back to staring.

* * *

Sarah decided to hit the dance floor, so she ran home and changed into a T-shirt and shorts. When she came back, she was surprised by who had decided to go karaoke.

Koran was up there, grinning determinedly.

Sarah smirked. _Might as well wait until he's done_, she thought.

Guitar started to play on the speakers, and Koran prepared himself. Sarah sat back and waited on a bench. "Maybe he's got potential," she said to Milo, who was next to her. Milo nodded and then the song began.

"_Well, it would've been, could've been worse than you would ever know;  
Oh, the dashboard melted, but we still have the radio_."

Sarah found herself nodding to the beat and she grinned. Koran was pretty good.

"_Oh, it should've been, could've been worse than you would ever know;  
Well, you told me about nowhere well it sounds like someplace I'd like to go_."

"People were clapping and cheering and Koran decided to turn a few dance moves while there were no lyrics.

"_Oh, it could've been, should've been worse than you would ever know;__  
Well, the windshield was broken but I love the fresh air ya know;  
(The dashboard melted but we still have the radio)_"  
"_Oh, it would've been, could've been worse than you would ever know, oh!__  
(The dashboard melted but we still have the radio)__  
Oh, we talked about nothing, which was more than I wanted you to know-oh-oh-oh-oh;__  
Now here we go!_

"I wonder where he heard this song," Nora said as she sat down near Sarah.

"_Oh! It would've been, could've been worse than it had even gone__  
Well, the car was on blocks, but I was already where I want;  
(It was impossible, we ran it good, we ran it good)_"  
"_Why should we ever even ever really even get to know?  
__(It was impossible, we ran it good, we ran it good)  
__Oh if the world don't like us it'll shake us just like we were a co-oh-oh-oh-old;__  
Now here we go!_"

Rian walked up and sat next to Nora. "Hey, who are you guys?" he asked them as Silas and Marcus sat down too. "Why, we're the Royal Rambles! You mean you don't know who we are?" demanded Sarah. He shook his head. "I'm not from around here. My uncle said that I was born in a place out of the castle."

"_Well we scheme and we scheme but we always blow it__  
We've yet to crash, but we still might as well enjoy it__  
Standing at a light switch to each east and west horizon,  
__Every dawn you're surprising,  
__And the evening was consoling__  
Saying, 'See it wasn't quite as bad as—'  
Well, it would've been, could've been worse than you would ever know._"

"_I was patiently erasing and recording the wrong episodes  
__After you had proved my point wrong,__  
It wasn't like I'd let it go, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh;  
__I just wanted to catch the last laugh of this show._"

"I'm Rian," said the 15-year-old. "I'm Sarah, this is my brother Milo, my adoptive cousins Marcus, Silas, and Nora." Marcus narrowed his eyes and stood next to Rian, looking up at him. "You know, you look a lot like my dad." "What's his name?" asked Rian. "Nicko. At least, that's what everyone calls him."

"_Yeah, it would've been, could've been worse than you would ever know.__  
Oh, the dashboard melted, but we still have the radio.  
(The dashboard melted, but we ran it good, we ran it good)_

"_Hard-wired to conceive, so much we'd have to stow it  
__Even needs have needs, tiny giants made of tinier giants.  
__Don't wear eyelids so I don't miss the last laugh of this show__  
(The dashboard melted but we still have the radio)_

"_Oh, we could've been, should've been worse than you would ever know.  
__(The dashboard melted but we still have the radio)__  
Well, you told me about nowhere well it sounds like someplace I'd like to go-oh-oh-oh-oh__  
Now here we go!_

"_Well we scheme and we scheme but we always blow it  
__We've yet to crash, but we still might as well enjoy it__  
Standing at a light switch to each east and west horizon,__  
Every dawn you're surprising,__  
And the evening was consoling  
__Saying, 'See it wasn't quite as bad as—'_

"_Oh it would've been, could've been worse than you would ever know._"

The crowd erupted into cheers and Rian said, "I've gotta go. It was nice meeting you guys. Hey, that kid, what's his name—Merrin?" He pointed up at the karaoke stand. "Koran" Sara corrected. "Why Merrin?" Rian shook his head. "I dunno. Just something about him—makes me think of his father." Sarah stood up quickly, almost knocking her chair over. "Father?" "That's it!" Rian snapped his fingers. "His father's name is Merrin Meredith." Milo snorted. "What a stupid name. No wonder Koran didn't take it."

"You got a last name?" Sarah asked Rian. "Well, I don't know. When my uncle calls me by my last name, he says 'Gringe'…but say it: 'Rian Gringe'." Marcus grinned. "Sounds like some kind of skin disease." "I know. One time my uncle called me 'Heap'." Silas' mouth dropped open. "HEAP??!!" He turned to Nora and yelled, "GOOD GOD, HE'S RELATED TO US!!"

"Wait, seriously? You're a Heap?" Nora looked at Rian interestedly. He shrugged. "I honestly don't know." "Well, let's see how many uncles we have" said Marcus. "Sep: no wife, no kids. Jo: wife, one kid. Sam: wife, two kids. Edd: wife, one kid. Erik: no wife, no kids. And there was one more…I forgot his name." "Hmm…can you remember your mother's name?" Then Koran came in. "Hey, guys. Oh, I see you've met Rian."

"RIAN! GET YOUR BUM OVER HERE RIGHT NOW, OR NO PAY FOR A WEEK!!" "Coming, Unk!!" yelled Rian. "Sorry, peeps, I've gotta split. See you later?" "See ya" said Koran, and then Rian was gone. "You know Rian?" Sarah asked Koran. "Yeah, we talked for a bit."

The party ended soon after that, for it was 10:00. Koran told the others what he knew about Rian, then they went their separate ways.

Meanwhile, Rian's dreams were disturbed by a dark stranger with no name, just wild straw-colored hair and green eyes…

* * *

**A/N: Yay for making more random family members! If you can guess who Rian is, you win a Spit Fyre plushie and a cookie :DD**

**Lol, some RackxSarah at the beginning, there. But it won't turn out how you think...  
**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Sarah woke up at seven for a change, rubbed her eyes, and got ready for a big day.

Once she had woken all the others up, they went downstairs and ate breakfast. Sarah held back as everyone else exited the Palace.

She turned to her Uncle Nicko. "How many brothers do you have?" He grinned. "Read up on your family history. I have six." "Technically, you're not my real family" she pointed out. "True. Still."

She put her dishes in the sink. "What were their names?" Nicko snorted. "Please. Sep, Sam, Jo, Edd, Erik…" His face darkened. "…and Simon." "Simon? I never heard of him." "You don't want to."

Sarah eagerly asked, "Did he have a kid? A wife?" Nicko nodded. "Her name was Lucy. His wife, I mean. Lucy Gringe." Sarah's heart beat faster. "I think they had a kid, but they lost it." Sarah leaned forward. "That kid they lost? I think someone found him." Nicko's eyes widened. "Him?" Sarah closed her eyes. "All right, I'll tell you the whole thing, but I'd be better if we had Koran."

There was a voice from outside: "Ask question, get answer" and Koran walked in, leaned against a wall, and grinned. Nicko nodded. "Speak of the devil. Well, Sarah?" Glancing at Koran, she said, "Koran can start. Tell Unk about Rian." Koran began:

"It was at the party last night. I was just sitting there when this 15-year-old kid walks up to me and asks my name." Nicko frowned. "What did he look like?" "Tawny-ish hair, bright green eyes, slanted eyebrows, gray tunic, gold belt. Anyway, he introduces himself, and then says that he's seen someone like me before. He said that he had no parents, and he lives with his uncle at the boatyard. When he left, he called me Merrin."

"And we found out later that this Merrin guy is Koran's dad. Weird" Sarah burst in. Koran looked at her, surprised. "Really?" "Yeah. He said that you looked a lot like him." Nicko stood up and knocked a chair over. "WHAT??!!" He looked at Koran. "You're the kid of that stupid son of a—" "Unk, I think you need to tell us a bit more about your childhood. Now."

"Yeah, I mean, we're your kids, and you never told us anything." Silas jumped in from outside. Sarah looked at him. "How long have you been listening?" "A while" said Nora, also walking in. Then came Marcus and Milo. Nicko sighed. "Okay, okay. This might be a bit hard for you lot."

"Sarah, Milo, your mother and your Uncle Sep were the greatest friends when they were 13, like you guys are, along with your father. Practically inseparable. Heh" he chuckled. "It was around that time that your father started liking your mother. Anyway, I suppose Sep told you about the **Queste**?" They all nodded, even Koran. "The reason that happened was because of Merrin's own greediness. He was around the same age as those three, and Simon's apprentice." "What exactly did Simon do? What happened to him?" asked Marcus.

"Simon was the eldest of Silas Senior's children. He really wanted to be the ExtraOrdinary Apprentice, but, as you know, Sep got it instead. In all of his envy and rage, he went and plotted in the Badlands. He captured Jenna, and brought her back, but she escaped. The rest isn't that important, except that it was Simon who discovered **Flyte **after a few centuries—" "The WHAT??!!" yelled Koran.

"The Flyte Charm. Sep has it; surely he's shown you, Koran?" "Yeah" said Koran, and then he dug in his pocket and dug out something small that glittered.

It was a tiny golden arrow with silver wings that beat softly. "He gave it to me."

Sarah gasped. "Whoa." Silas leaned in and grinned. "Cool." "Have you used it?" Nicko asked Koran. He nodded. "Yeah, I use it to get around."

"Well, that's neat. Back to my story, eventually all of us (me, Sep, and Jenna) got back to the Castle, where Simon had—ah, how he did it isn't too important, but in a nutshell, he tried to kill Marcia." "Seriously?" demanded Nora. "Seriously. You guys ever met her?" "Yeah' said Sarah. "She comes by the Palace sometimes. Always complaining about her shoes. 'Oh no, they're covered in mud!' or 'Disgusting, whoever owns that dog should clean up it's poo.' Then I have to remind her that she's dead, and she snaps at me. Huh."

"Anyway, that's what Simon did. Merrin became his assistant after your Great-Aunt Zelda rescued him from a—geez, if I keep breaking off, I'll never finish this. So he became Simon's assistant. He wasn't afraid to cause other people misery, or even death." Nicko glanced at Koran, only to see that the kid's face was hard as stone. "Later, he decided that Simon wasn't treating him well enough, so he ran away. He actually lived in the Palace for a while." Sarah let out a sniff. "The reason I hate Merrin so much is because he almost caused the death of both Sep and Jenna by sending them both on the **Queste** that none had ever returned from."

"Around when I turned 17, he ran off with some girl and was never seen again. I had heard rumors that he was killed by a wild dragon, and all I can say is good riddance."

Silence greeted the end of his tale. Then Koran said softly, "I never knew my father was so…evil. Twisted." "Then you can join Rian's club" replied Silas. "His father was a stupid jerk too. No offense, dad." "None taken."

Sarah looked up and Koran and said quietly, "You have to live down what your father did, Koran. That's the only way you can forgive yourself." He glanced down at her in surprise. "I didn't expect that to come from you." She shrugged and said cheerfully, "I only say one or two serious things a year. I figured this was a pretty good time for that."

Sarah stood up. "We need to go find Rian, and he has to hear what we know. Come on, guys." "Don't forget you leave at noon!" Nicko called as the six of them left.

They went to the boatyard dragging their stuff (they figured they would wait and load up), and Sarah went to look for Rian. She ended up bumping into Rupert Gringe.

"Huh? Oh, hello Princess. What can we do for you?" "I'm looking for Rian" she said looking at him. "You don't happen to know him?" "He's my nephew. I'll get him for you."

A few minutes later Rian came from behind a giant ship. "Hey, Sarah. What's up?" She stared him in the face. Finally she said, "We found out who your parents were." He grinned. "Cool. Let's hear it."

She led him back to the others and they told him what they had found out. "So my father's a murderer" sighed Rian. "I figured it was either that or a circus performer." Milo burst out laughing. "Why a circus performer?" "Meh. I dunno." "And he's not exactly a murderer because he didn't succeed." "Still."

Milo suddenly burst out, "Doyouwannacomewithus?" Rian raised his eyebrows. "Huh?" "We're going to our Great-Aunt Zelda's to finish the Test" Nora explained. "Oh. What is this 'Test'?" Rian asked. Sarah smirked and glanced at Koran. "A torture device" grumbled the latter. Rian laughed. "Sounds like fun. How can I help?" "Traitor" said Koran indignantly.

Then another kid stumbled in, clutching his foot. "YOWOWOWOW—oh, hi Rian and lot." Rian grinned. "Always the clumsy one, eh Rack?" "I suppose." As he walked over, he tripped and fell in a boat. The boat tipped over and squashed him under it. "YOW!" Rian rolled his eyes, the grin still plastered on his face, and rolled the boat over. Rack had his whole body smashed into the ground. "I hate this job" he growled, his voice muffled.

Nora laughed.

Pulling himself up, Rack said cheerfully, "You guys ready to go?" "Can we squeeze in one more passenger?" asked Sarah, glancing at Rian. Rack's smile became forced; Sarah wondered why. "Um, sure, I guess." "Great. Can we leave now?" Rack frowned. "Maybe, let me go ask Jannit." He rushed off and came back a minute later. "She says sure." "Then let's go. Rian, you wanna bring anything?" "Nah."

Rack showed them the boat. It was a motorboat, medium-sized, stocked with food and drinks. "Hmm…does it have pool?" asked Marcus. Nora rolled her eyes.

Sarah sat down on a chair on deck. She felt the wind in her face and smiled. "I like it." "Good. Then we'll go."

The rest of them jumped aboard and settled themselves.

Rack grabbed a hold of the wheel and yelled, "Hold on to your butts!" Then they took off, speeding towards the marshes.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Sarah was up on deck. She loved the breeze that carried the tang of the sea (but not that as much) and the way they moved effortlessly across the water.

Behind her, Marcus, Nora, Silas, and Rian were playing some card game with cookies and potato chips. She turned her chair to watch, and saw that Rian was holding an ace. "Read it and weep!" he crowed as he claimed a bag of Lays, a bag of Ruffles, and a roll of Oreos. Marcus grumbled but forked over his last Nutter Butter, and Nora laughed. "Out!" The darker-haired boy jumped out of his chair and walked over to join Sarah.

Only an hour had passed since they started off, but to Sarah it felt like minutes. Milo came up from the cabin below with Koran and they were chatting as if they'd been friends for years. Koran went over to the card table, and Milo plopped himself down next to his sister and buddy.

"You've taken to Koran" Marcus remarked as he slurped a Coke. Milo shrugged.  
"Once you get to know him, he's pretty cool." He glanced at Sarah. "We're all getting used to him." Sarah nodded. "He's not bad, but we still need to finish the Test, whether we like him or not." "True."

Marcus got up after a few minutes and left to join the game again. Milo and Sarah were left alone, with only Rack in hearing distance.

"You know, Koran's a pretty good singer. He says he's practiced, but when I asked why he didn't answer. Weird" commented Milo. Sarah said nothing to her brother, just asked a passing Silas if he could get her a Sprite.

"Did you ever figure out what CD Rack had at the party?" Milo questioned Sarah. She shook her head and growled, "It's none of my business." "Touché" he said with a grin. "Mmmrmph."

Then she winced. "Uggh. I think I'm seasick." She rushed down

Koran, meanwhile, watched Sarah run past and was worried. He hoped she wasn't horribly sick. Then he saw her go to the lower deck. He felt a jolt, and closed his eyes. Suddenly feeling very odd, he dropped to the deck, and blacked out.

"Hey, what happened to Koran?" "He passed out." "What the heck?!" He blinked open his eyes to see Rack, Silas, and Milo above him, their eyebrows raised in a "What the frick?!" expression. He struggled to his feet, and Milo asked, "What happened? Are you okay?" Aside from a throbbing pain in the back of his skull, Koran was fine.

"I don't really know what happened…" he muttered, rubbing his head. "I just glanced over at"—he fumbled in his mind—"the stairs, and then poof, I was out like a light." Nora came over. "Gee, everyone's acting sick. Sarah threw up over the edge." The others all wrinkled their noses, and then Sarah came back.

"I'm okay" she said in barely a whisper. Then, stronger, "Rack, why aren't you running the boat?" "Rian's running it" he said with a little grin. She raised an eyebrow. "Then why did I look in a window and see him playing arcade games?"

Everyone's eyebrows shot straight up, and they looked out the edge of the boat.

There was nothing but water surrounding the boat, and no land was in sight in any direction.

"AAAAAAHH!!" they all screamed, running around on the deck. "WE'RE LOST AT SEA, LIKE ALL THOSE CLICHÉ MOVIES!!"

"Wait, wait, guys, we've got to calm down" said Rian, who had come up from below deck. "Rack and I know how to drive a boat, and we'll just send out a radio signal. Wherever the radio signal comes from, we'll go there."

Rack and Rian went into the little driving area and the others looked at each other, shrugged, and started playing cards again.

"Let's play blackjack." "Okay," said Koran. "I'll be dealer. Marcus, I show a five, you show a six and a jack." "Hit me." "Ouch. Okay, Silas, I show a five, you show a 10 and an eight." "Stand." "Sarah, I show a five, you show a—whoa, Blackjack!" "YESS!!" "Alrighty, Nora, I show a five, you show a five and a three." "Double down." "And you get a six. That makes 14. Milo, I show a five, you show a four and an eight." "12…hit me." "Kay."

As Koran looked at everybody's cards, Sarah drifted into thought. _Wow, Koran's changed a lot since we first met him, even though it's only been about a month. He's gotten popular and a lot of people like him. I wonder if he'll really get mad at us once he finds out what the last part of the Test will be._

Meanwhile, Rian was lounging back in his rolly-chair as Rack sent out a radio signal in a 10-mile radius. It was: "SOS. We are eight kids lost at sea trying to get to the Marram Marshes. SOS."

Soon there was a response. "Woohoo!" cheered Rack, and wrote it down. "Let's see, it says: 'Go east until you see land, then turn north for a while until you get to the marshes.' YESS!!"

He burst out of the driving-place-thing and yelled, "Hey, guys! We know where to go!!" Everyone looked up and grinned. "Excellent, we were running out of things to bet with" said Silas as he chowed down on an almond cookie. "I hope you don't mind, Rack, that we bet your entire life's savings."

Rack slapped his forehead. "Great. Who won it?" "I did" said Sarah. Her eyebrows were narrowed but she wore a sneaky grin. "Now I can finally buy that remote-controlled giant squid. Watch your back in the pool at home, Milo." Rack slapped his forehead again, but it wasn't as loud.

He sat down at the table, set Rian on duty, and glanced at Sarah. "I'm gonna win that back" he growled in good humor. "Try me" she said with a smirk.

_About half an hour later…_

"Yes, I finally won it back!"

"Hey guys, we're at the Port!"

Sarah looked up. "Lets refresh our food supply, since _SOMEONE_"—she glared at Marcus—"ate all our junk food when we weren't looking." "Hmmph" Marcus grumbled.

"I'll go aboard" said Koran. "I'll go" said Rack with a glare at Koran. "I'll go, and Milo, how about you come too?" asked Sarah pointedly with a glance at the two boys that seemed to say, 'WHAT IS YOUR FRICKIN' PROBLEM??!!'

The others didn't notice either exchange, and they nodded. Sarah looked at Nora, Rian, Marcus, and Silas, and said, "Rian, you're in charge." "I always was." "I'll ignore that. Nora, you have to make sure Marcus doesn't eat any more of the food we use to bet with." "Why am I always stuck with the hardest jobs?"

They docked (paying a small fee of $5) and the four went aboard. Sarah found herself next to Koran and hissed, "What is going on?!" Koran clenched his fists. "I don't know. The guy just hates me for some reason." Sarah thought she knew why, but she didn't say it aloud. "Well, try and ignore him."

She ran up to walk with Milo. She jabbed a finger behind her and growled, "What's with them?" Milo smirked sneakily. "Rack seems to have some competition." Sarah sighed. "Forget it, I'm not going there." Milo shrugged. "You know, Sarah, the best way would to just be friends with both of them." "What the bleep do you think I'm doing?!" she spat.

Milo said nothing. Sarah huffed angrily and grumbled, "You're no help."

When they got to the Port, they bought a whole bunch of junk food and then went back to the boat. They were off again almost immediately.

Sarah let herself sink into her thoughts when Koran tapped her on the shoulder. "I'm sorry" he muttered. "But Rack's really getting on my nerves." "It's okay. If it makes you feel better, he makes me mad sometimes too" said Sarah. She met his eyes and he blinked, then looked away. "You know, he's not one of the Royal Rambles. He never was. But Rian might be" said Sarah. Koran looked at her again. "Rian's a good guy." "Yeah" Sarah agreed, and then Koran left.

She stared into the sinking sun, hoping that the problems could be solved when her own thoughts were a bit more organized.

* * *

**A/N: I realize this chapter is not as funny and a bit more emotional, but I felt I needed to put at least one of these chapters up. If I get some stuff wrong on the card playing or whatever, it's because I've never played blackjack or poker before.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Sarah yawned and awoke. She felt the rocking of the boat and the cool ocean breeze.

Then she shot up with a question in her mind.

_Wait a minute…I thought we reached Great-Aunt Zelda's place last night! What the HECK am I still doing on the boat??!!_

Then a face peeked over the side. It was Nora.

"Hey, you're finally awake!" she said cheerfully. "Come on, all of us are already back at the house." "Did they get my stuff?' Sarah asked as she jumped over the side. "Yeah, now let's go. We have to figure out how we're going to do this."

They jumped into a boat and followed the stream to the house. Great-Aunt Zelda and her "apprentice" (he was about 25 years old) were there to see them.

"Well, hello Sarah. You guys haven't come here in a while…and certainly not with three other kids I've never seen before!" she greeted them. "I take it they've introduced themselves?" said Sarah with a grin as she walked inside the house. "Yes. That Koran boy…_much_ too skinny. But I'm sure he'll take to the food here." "If you say so," said Milo, who had hopped out of nowhere. Sarah elbowed him in the ribs.

There came Silas and Marcus, and Rack had fallen back to sleep on the couch. Koran was having a burping contest with Rian. "Boys!" Great-Aunt Zelda chided them. "How can you burp when you haven't eaten anything?" Rian and Koran looked at each other for a second, then they shrugged. "Honestly," Great-Aunt Zelda sighed.

Her apprentice, who everyone still called 409, walked over and whispered, "Can you teach me to do that?" "Homie, we wrote the book on it."

Sarah plopped herself down on the couch and called the other four Royal Rambles over. "Okay" she whispered. "We're here, Koran's here, let's get to work. But we have to keep him occupied--along with Rian and Rack. Marcus, it's your job to challenge all of them to an eating contest. Nora, you tell Great-Aunt Zelda that we're going for a walk, and ask her where not to go because of the bugs. Silas, talk to 409 until I give you the secret signal, which means that Milo has gotten enough jars out of the back cabinets. Everyone got it?" "Just one question" said Silas. "What's the secret signal?"

Sarah made a clicking noise in her throat. "I'm afraid I can't tell you. Like I said, it's a _secret_." Silas rolled his eyes.

"Nothing else? Okay, gang, move out!"

Marcus sauntered over to the other three boys (Rack had finally woken up) and said slyly, "You guys are getting pretty good at burping, but I think you should try something different: I challenge you three to an eating contest, and I'm putting $5 on Rian, seeing as he's my cousin and the oldest." Rian grinned. "Bring it, kids." "I'll bring it in a tote bag," growled Koran as Rack smirked and Marcus set down about 60 bowls of ice cream. "Dig in" he said smugly. The two 13-year-olds and 15-year-old shoved their faces in as Marcus left.

Nora walked up to Great-Aunt Zelda and asked, "We're taking a walk, but we're worried about the Bogle Bugs. Where _shouldn't _we go?" Great-Aunt Zelda smiled. "Well, I'd suggest going to the north edge. To the south there're way too many." "Okay, thanks" said Nora, and she strode away.

Silas was asking a million questions to 409 as Milo grabbed around 10 jars and handed some of them to Sarah. She winked to Silas, and he quickly said to 409 "Gottagotinkleroombye!!" and darted off to where the other four were; right outside the house.

"That went pretty well" commented Sarah. "Now, Nora?" "We should head south." "Okay, off we go."

When they got to the south part of the Marshes, they found themselves in a great cloud of Bogle Bugs. "Don't open your mou—ptooey! Blecch! Yuck!" Sarah spat out bugs as the others made sure not to speak.

"OKAY!" Milo yelled. "WE'VE GOT THE JARS FILLED! NOW LET'S GO BEFORE WE GET EATEN BY THESE THINGS!"

Finally, they made it out of the bugs and they each held up two jars. There were tons of the insects inside them. Sarah grinned sneakily. "Excellent" she said as she clasped her hands in front of her nose. "EExcellent." Milo rolled his eyes. "Sarah, we know you can do a great Mr. Burns impression, but—" Marcus glanced at his watch and yelped, "We're missing 'The Simpsons'! Quick, back to the house!"

They dumped the jars in a hole by the house and covered it up with leaves and stuff, then raced into the house and jumped in front of the TV. "Whew!" gasped Sarah. "Thank goodness we only missed the theme song."

Later, after The Simpsons, Sarah pulled out about 15 bottles of pills from her pocket and hissed, "Come on, time for the second stage of preparing."

She dropped a whole bunch of pills into each bug jar and said, "These'll take about a day to take effect, so we can do all that we want while we wait."

And so the day of fun began.

_The sun's rising we're all awake_

_We count all the things we'll take_

Marcus ran in and grabbed the other three. They all headed down to the Mott.

_And as if that can't compensate_

_Hard to tell the money we'll make_

_Run on_

Sarah found herself next to Rack. She whispered in his ear, "Rack, dude, can ya lay off Koran a bit?" He started in surprise and glanced down. "I guess I've been kind of a jerk to him. Sorry, Sarah." "Thanks" she said with a grin. He grinned back and she ran on ahead.

_We'll have thousands by the moon_

_Hey already it's dinner soon_

Marcus was eating a slice of cold pizza when he looked at it for the first time. And I don't mean glanced, he really _looked_ at it. And he raised his eyebrows as he saw what was really in the pizza.

_Our aunt gets up from her loom_

_Cooks us things we can't consume_

The cheese was actually melted spinach covered in something, the pepperoni was thin slices of a type of edible algae, the crust was full of—horror of horrors—_seeds_, and the tomato was, well, tomato. I guess that's healthy enough for Great-Aunt Zelda. Marcus ducked behind a bush to throw up.

_We're rockin' the marshes, just like our predecessors did_

_We're rockin' the marshes, make room for all of the kids_

_We're rockin' the marshes, cash on delivery saves us now_

_But in the nearest future_

_We're getting busted don't tie me down_

Soon they reached the Mott. Milo jumped in with a yell, and Silas followed. Sarah found some stuff in her pocket and went to fill them up. Koran was inspecting the water curiously, Marcus had launched himself right in front of Silas, and Nora was splashing her brothers. Rian was laughing as he swung from a vine to land in the Mott with a KABLOOSH!!

_Water balloon fights and soaking clothes_

_Uh oh, auntie'll have a row_

As Koran looked over with a wary eye, a water balloon hit him in the head and, surprised, he fell in. Everyone roared with laughter and Sarah aimed another water balloon. Koran shook his head, grinned, and dove underwater.

_Quick, guys, get somewhere low_

_Find a place she doesn't know_

Rack had gotten out of the water and grabbed a large plank of wood. He set it down by the Mott and used it as a diving board.

_Great, she knows where we are_

_Hurry, you lot, and hide the bug jars_

Sarah shot another water balloon at Marcus as he clambered out to try the diving board. "Hey!" he yelled as it hit him in the butt. Then suddenly a water balloon hit_ Sarah_ in the head. She whirled around and sent another one back at her pursuer. She heard a _sploosh_, snorted in laughter, and took off, racing around the Mott.

_We're rockin' the marshes, just like Mom and Daddy did_

_We're rockin' the marshes, my brother's an idiot (Sarah, shut up!)*_

_We're rockin' the marshes, cash on delivery saves us now_

_But in the nearest future_

_We're getting busted she tied me down_

Nora watched Koran take off after Sarah and smiled, then grabbed a water balloon of her own and ran after them.

_In a blaze these days_

_Racing past the house again_

_Until it starts to rain (Crap!)**_

_We can tell that he's suspecting it_

_Curses_

Raindrops started to fall. Grumbling, the kids went back to the house, but not after Nora threw her water balloon at Sarah and the latter hit Koran with her final one.

_He's shooting suspicious looks our way_

_'Cause he found one of the lids_

_'Cause Milo dropped one, idiot (SARAH!!)*_

Koran bent down. "Hey, what's this?" He held up a jar lid. Sarah cussed under her breath and Nora said hurriedly, "Um, Great-Aunt Zelda was gathering some kind of herb earlier, she must have dropped it." "Hmm." Koran still looked cautious, and Rian and Rack were looking at the Royal Rambles as if they were asking them, "What do you know?"

_Yes it was my idea_

_Yes it was my idea_

_Always was my idea_

_Oh joy a storm_

_Now we're running out of food (Marcus did it)*** _

They plopped themselves in front of the TV for the rest of the evening until dinner, which they politely excused themselves from, saying "It's very kind of you, but we aren't hungry at the moment." That is, except for Koran, because Great-Aunt Zelda insisted, "You're as thin as a stick, boy, and you need to eat." The others sympathized for him.

_The sun's rising we're all awake_

_We count all the things we'll take_

_The sun's rising we're all awake_

_We count all the things we'll take_

_The sun's rising we're all awake_

_We count all the things we'll take_

_The sun's rising we're all awake_

_We count all the things we'll take_

After dinner, the eight kids laid around bored. "What are we gonna do?" groaned Rack. Nora sat up. "We could play…" she smirked and glanced at Sarah. "…Truth or Dare."

_It's morning again time for the last stage_

_It's morning again time for the last stage_

_It's morning again time for the last stage_

Koran's jaw dropped and he scooted out and onto a chair. "Count me out." "Oh come on, Koran" said Rian with a grin. "Sissy." "I am not a—fine. I'll play" the black-haired boy grumbled.

_CRAP!!_

"I'll go first" said Nora, and looked at all the kids. "Wait, Nora. Before we start I think we should list the rules" said Koran. He stood up, cleared his throat, and announced, "Rule One: No truths or dares can be about _liking people._" Sarah snorted and leaned back in a reclining chair. "Please, Koran. We're 13-, 14-, and 15-year-olds." "Exactly my point. Rule Two: They cannot be about _kissing the Boggart_." Marcus did a spit take and all the others keeled over, roaring with laughter.

_The Bogle Bugs are loose_

_We're rockin' the marshes, so much for a luxury cruise_

_We're rockin' the marshes, cash on delivery saves us now_

_But in the nearest future_

_We got busted HELP SHE TIED ME DOWN!!_

_She's crazed_

"Rule Three!" Koran shouted over all the guffawing, "They cannot be about _using a plant as_—" He was interrupted by Great-Aunt Zelda. "Kids, what are you doing now?" she sighed. "We're playing Truth or Dare" said Nora eagerly, while Silas was still chuckling.

_Yeah, yeah, we're rockin' the marshes_

_Yeah, yeah, we're rockin' the marshes_

"Well, you have to go to bed now. Good night, everyone." "Good night, Great-Aunt Zelda" they chorused, and then they went upstairs. They played Truth or Dare in whispers until midnight, then they finally fell asleep, a certain five looking forward to the next day.

_Yeah, yeah._

_

* * *

_**A/N: Loooong chap! The song is called Rockin' the Suburbs, by Ben Folds, and I wrote my own lyrics. I didn't use the last part of the song because, well, there's not much to it.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Sarah's eyes flew open and she leapt out of bed, racing downstairs.

"Hi auntie, bye auntie" she said as she shot past Great-Aunt Zelda, who felt the wind go by. "Sarah? What in blazes are you doing that makes you go so fast?"

Sarah reached the bugs and looked inside each one of the jars. She grinned nastily as she saw that the bugs were sleeping, all the pills eaten, and they were growing about half a millimeter a minute. Already they were twice their normal size.

"Excellent. They should be ready in about"—she glanced at her watch—"four hours. Joy."

She raced back upstairs to see that everyone else was up. That is, mostly up. Some of them were…um…_nine-tenths _asleep. Koran for instance.

He had gotten out of bed, tried to stretch, and fell promptly on Sarah's bed, where he had started to snore. Sarah sat down on her pillow and pushed him off, saying "Shove up, there." He bonked his head, sat up, and his head whipped around. "What? Did New Zealand invade? I tried to tell the President, but would he listen?*"

"Ugggh…what time is it?" groaned Rian as he scrabbled for the clock. "Easy, Rio. It's 8:30."

"GAH! I OVERSLEPT!" He got up and tried to run out the door, but Milo grabbed the back of his shirt. "Chill. We got it covered." "Got what covered?" asked Rack as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Uh..nothing" said Sarah quickly. She got Silas, Marcus, Nora, and Milo and pushed them towards a walk-in closet. "We need to discuss something for a moment."

As soon as they were in there, she poked Milo in the nose. "No more slips, okay? One more and we'll be in the doghouse." "Why can't we just _tell_ Rian and Rack? It has nothing to do with them." Sarah raised her head for a moment, then walked over to the door of the walk-in closet, opened it slightly to the inside, then slammed it outward. "YOW!" She stuck her head out and smiled sweetly, then hissed, "ZIP!

"Anyway" she whispered, "I checked the bugs and it'll take them about another four hours. So we've got a bit of a wait. Until then, shut the bleep up, okay, Milo?" "Hmmmph." "So, let's plan this out" said Marcus. "Yeah" agreed Nora.

"Okay" Sarah told them. "He loses. All of us stay a little bit, and then we go home. We announce to everyone that he's a disgrace to the name of 13-year-old. We keep playing pranks on him, like shooting soap balloons into his window. We do not hang out with him if we want to, only if we have to."

She clapped her hands, and said, "Alrighty, that's settled."

Sarah was heading for the door when Nora asked, "What if he wins?"

She turned back with an evil grin upon her face. "Trust me, he won't."

* * *

Koran was suspicious of the RRs. They were acting very odd, always glancing at the sun or their watches. It was about 12:00 when Sarah walked up to him and said in an ominous voice, "It is time for the purpose of our visit t to a certain Marram Marsh. Come Koran Un-named." He raised an eyebrow. "Un-named?" Milo shrugged. "Well, come on, do you really want your dad's last name?" "No." "Good."

Rian and Rack followed them curiously. Koran glanced around; Sarah was leading the way with Milo next to her, Silas was on the left and Marcus on the right, Nora took up the rear with the other two boys walking behind her. "Why do I feel like I've been captured?" he muttered. Nobody answered.

They reached the house and they heard great grunting and buzzing from behind the house. Koran turned his head toward it slowly. "I repeat from earlier, are you _trying_ to get me killed?" Sarah shrugged. Koran shook his head in exasperation. "I swear, makes me almost not _want _to be the ExtraOrdinary Apprentice." Then he snapped his fingers. "That's it!" he crowed.

"Alrighty, Rian, Rack, you might want to back off a bit" Sarah warned them as she headed towards the hole. She yanked out two of the stakes that held the tarp down over the bugs, and then the monstrous beings, over 25 of them, shot into the air. They were as big as 15-year-olds with the temper of a giant homicidal tiger that hadn't eaten in weeks. "Funny" remarked Sarah as she looked up at them. "I thought we had more than that." "Oh, most of them probably got squashed against the glass," said Nora, reading a comic book.

Silas and Marcus focused all their **Magykal **powers on creating an invisible shield around everyone BUT Koran.

Milo struck a gong, and the last test began.

Koran backed away from the bugs. He was surprised, and chagrined. He didn't think even _Sarah_ would be this cruel. _If I get out of this alive, I'm gonna kill her._

He pulled out something from his pocket: the **Flyte Charm**. He shot up into the air and whizzed around the Bogle Bugs. But one of them snagged him and he tumbled to the ground. "Oof!" he wheezed as he hit the ground.

About 15 of them landed around and surrounded him. He gulped and grabbed a little icicle out of another pocket. "Ha!" he yelled, and **Froze** about 5 of the bugs before 10 seized him in their pinchers and brought him up too high to be seen.

Sarah looked up and squinted to see nothing but a black speck, and she heard shouts.

Then she winced. The bugs had dropped him, and Koran was plunging more than a mile through the air.

But he had a trick up his sleeve, or more accurately, the **Flyte Charm** in yet another pocket (how many does he have???)

He zipped past the bugs and broke a stick off a tree. Brandishing it like a spear, he kept those 10 at bay for a few moments, and then he dived down into the thick trees. The bugs, being a lot bigger, got stuck in the upper branches.

Koran grinned. _Only ten left to handle._

He landed softly on the ground where the last ten were, and they stared each other down until, with a wild yell, Koran hurled himself into the bugs, and all 11 disappeared in a cloud of fists, antennae, and legs.

Sarah was holding a clipboard, checking off and X-ing things as she watched Koran fight the Bogle Bugs.

About 15-so minutes later, to a chorus of _oohs_, _aahs_, and _ouches_, the cloud dissipated and the 10 bugs were all unconscious. Koran was covered in cuts, scratches, bruises, and welts. He glared at Sarah, then rasped, "How did I do?"

"Well, we'll have to figure this out. Come, fellow RRs." The five kids gathered around the clipboard for about five minutes.

_Five minutes later…_

"Alright, this is the final little thingy," said Sarah. She set her jaw and her pencil moved across the page so rapidly that it was a blur.

Nora went over to look and suddenly cracked up. She fell to the ground, shaking with laughter and the other three RRs came over to see just what was so funny. Silas snorted, and then they were all off roaring with laughter. Then Rian and Rack came over, grins on their faces. Soon they were guffawing too.

"Oh fer the love of cheese sandwiches—WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU ALL LAUGHING ABOUT??!!" demanded Koran as he walked over to peek. Sarah held out a hand right in front of his face and he promptly fell over. Staggering to his feet with yet another bruise, he grumbled, "What was that for?" "You aren't allowed to see the results," said Sarah simply. "Now go away."

Koran sat down on a stump and waited. Then he saw Sarah erasing something. In fact, she erased the whole page. He raised an eyebrow again but said nothing. Then she beckoned Nora, Silas, Milo, and Marcus over and they whispered among themselves for a moment. Marcus pulled out a calculator and typed in something, Silas tapped his watch, Milo scratched his chin, Nora quietly pointed out something, and Sarah nodded and erased something else before writing something else.

Crickets chirped in the background, and then finally the results.

"Okay, Koran Un-named, you have n—wait a minute…" Sarah squinted at the paper, turned it upside-down, right-side-up again, widened her eyes, scratched something with her fingernail—"JUST READ THE RESULTS! YOU'RE KILLING THE POOR READERS, HERE!" yelled Koran. "Fine, fine, sheesh."

"Koran Un-named, you have—"

Sarah fainted on the spot. Nora picked up the clipboard before it hit the ground.

"—passed the Test."

* * *

**A/N: Ha ha! You see THAT coming?**

**Edit: *I ripped off the Simpsons XD Issue #64.  
**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Sarah bit her lip as she scribbled something down on paper. "Hey, Nora!" she called behind her shoulder. "How many chocolate fountains do we want?" But it was Silas who answered, popping out of the pool that was shaped like a giant TV.

"We decided on one dark, three milk chocolate, remember?" "Oh, yeah" Sarah said as she erased something and checked off a box.

Marcus hesitated a moment before jumping off the diving board to say, "This is a surprise party, right?" Nora, who was drinking a soda while reading a book, rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Duh. We don't want him to know. That's why we've been playing pranks on him all week." Marcus scratched the top of his forehead. "Oh, yeah. I wondered why we did that."

Nora rolled her eyes again. "You are the stupidest brother ever." "Yes!!!" cheered Silas, and Marcus sprang off the diving board onto him. They disappeared under the water.

Sarah took off her sunglasses, stretched, and ran into the pool, yelling "PLATINUM-COATED EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL BULLET THINGY!!!"

Milo raised an eyebrow. She turned to look at him after she had resurfaced, and replied, "What? It's cooler than saying 'Cannonball.'"

Then there was a call from inside the Palace. "Kids, somebody's here asking for you." Sarah jumped out of the pool and yelled, "What do they look like?" "Well, there's a giant cart in the driveway with the words, 'Party Equipment Inc.' on it."

"That would be for me," Sarah answered. "Can you just sign my name on the clipboard thingy? Thanks, Mum." And with that she did another 'PLATINUM-COATED EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL BULLET THINGY' into the pool.

Meanwhile, a certain black-haired boy was just coming out of the Wizard Tower with a nod to the few people who were entering it. He turned onto a street and pulled out a little notebook. He bit his lip, and put it back in his pocket. Koran was on a mission.

He entered the Manuscriptorium with a set jaw. He grinned as he saw who was at the front desk. It was a kid around Koran's age, with dark brown, spiky hair, and blue eyes. His name was Myder. "Hey, Koran" Myder greeted him. "Whaddya need?" "Oh, I'm looking for a book on training dragons." "Why?" asked Myder, after jumping out of his seat and leading Koran into the back rooms. "Oh, my mentor's dragon's been a bit out of it for a while, and I'm getting into the Training of Animals stage in my training."

Koran had known Myder ever since he had become the Apprentice. They had gotten to be good friends, but since Myder was so busy all the time, the others hadn't met him yet. "Hey, I forgot to mention: one of the RRs was in here earlier." Koran started. "Who?" "Well, I don't know all their names, but he had black hair like you, but it was a lot shorter. He had green eyes. And hey, you're one of them now, right? I heard they're insane."

Koran loyally defended his friends. "They're not insane—well, not all of them. They're pretty cool. Its just Sarah who can be insane sometimes. And that was Milo who came in. What did he want?" "Oh, I think he wanted a chocolate **Charm**. He said he was going to turn those giant concrete blocks by the Palace into chocolate, seeing as nobody's ever going to use them. He also said he was gonna have a party, and that—oh, wait, never mind, we're here."

"Wait a mi—did he say when the party was?" persisted Koran as Myder grabbed a book that was green and _growling_. "Yeah, but I can't say" said Myder with a grin. "Oh come on!" Koran protested. "It's a surprise." "Hmmmph" he grumbled, and took the book. "Thanks, Myder." "Anytime, O Apprentice" said Cyder with a mock bow.

Koran decided to figure out when this party was and why he wasn't informed of it earlier. He was just walking down the way to the Palace when he turned a corner and ran right into someone.

"Ow! Good *&^%, Koran, what are you doing, walking into people like that?" growled Sarah as she pulled herself up. Koran raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware you were allowed to say that word." "Hey, since when have we followed the rules? Oh yeah, do you know where Rian is? I need to talk to him." "Ummm…no." "Dang." Suddenly, her phone rang.

She pulled it out, looked at the caller ID, and groaned. She out it to her ear and hissed, "This isn't a good time, Marcus. Shut up, shut up, he's right next to me! Yes, glad that finally got across." Then, louder, she said, "Call me back later." Then she quickly turned her phone off and shoved it in her pockets. "Stupid salesmen."

Koran rolled his eyes. Something was being hidden from him, and he thought it had something to do with a party.

"Whatever. I was going back to the Wizard Tower." "Oh, hey, would you do me a favor?" asked Sarah. Without waiting for a response, she handed him a folded slip of paper. "Just hand this to the guy at the store at the end of the street. Thanks."

As she took off back to the Palace, Koran found himself watching her. Feeling odd for a moment, he shook his head and walked into a wall.

Sarah snorted as she saw him run into the wall, and then kept sprinting to the Palace. It so ended up that she ran into Milo. "Geez, everyone is having coordination problems today. So, how'd it go?" Milo grinned. "He's gonna lead him into it. Smooth as silk." "Well, I ran into him back there"—Sarah pointed behind her—"and I think he's a little suspicious." Sarah shrugged. "Meh. It doesn't matter, too much."

Milo checked his watch and his eyebrows leapt like little jumping beans. "Holy FRICK, look at the time! The party starts at six and it's already 5:00! Let's MOVE!!"

Koran walked into the store called, "Karaoke Limited." Oh, yes, everyone, let's give Sarah a prize for subtlety.

He handed the paper to the guy at the front desk. "From the Heap family." The guy looked at it, nodded, and said, "The thing's out back, unless you want it delivered." "Um, delivered, please," said Koran. To his disappointment, the guy just nodded and bent back down over his work; obviously the address was on the paper. Koran left.

When he walked out, he bumped into someone. "Oof! Oh, hello Myder." "Yo, Koran, I was wondering if you'd like to go hang out at the arcade for a while. I heard from some kid that you were here and I have a ticket for 100 free tokens." Koran's eyes popped open and a wide grin split his face. "Where the HECK did you get that, man?" Myder smirked. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, my friend."

Rian was watching them from behind a bush. He nodded briefly, and then hissed into a walkie-talkie, "Nair to Sucram, Narok has left the building. All is going as planned, and Myder is putting up quite a good act." There was a crackle of static, and then a new voice came on. "How many times, Nair?! You call _everyone_ their name backwards!" "Well, I'm sorry, but I don't know how to pronounce 'Redym', Sarah." "You just did!"

_About 45-50 minutes later…_

"Come on, Koran, one of your friends asked me to show you something because they were busy" said Myder, tugging Koran on the sleeve. Koran slurped his Mr. Pibb and burped. "Sure."

They ran to the Palace and Myder scratched his head as they entered one of the living rooms. "Huh, they said they'd be here. Let's go look." They headed off to look in all the different rooms.

Sarah checked her watch. "Okay, people" she said, turning to the giant crowd that had turned up: their 17-year-old cousins, their parents and Uncle Sep, all the RRs, of course, Rack, Rian, their friends, their cousins friends, all the friends of the friends, and a bunch of other various relatives. A band had also showed up: they had electric and acoustic guitar, drums, keyboard, synthesizer, base, a lead singer, and three backup singers who were playing three of the guitars.

Then Myder's head poked in. He winked, and whispered, "He's coming." Sarah nodded to Silas, who was up on the rafters ready to hook up the lights, and to Ryou, who was by the door. She turned off the lights. Milo was standing by a switch that would turn on the disco ball. Sarah rushed over to whisper to the band, "When he comes in, start playing something really party-ish and cool, kay?" The lead singer nodded and he handed out sheets of music.

Myder then walked in, saying loudly, "Come on, Koran, maybe they're in here." The black-haired boy entered and at that exact moment, Silas plugged the lights in, Milo flipped the switch, and everyone yelled, "WELCOME TO THE PACK!!"

Koran fell over in surprise. With another switch flip, the disco dance floor turned on, and the disco ball started spinning. The band struck up a good beat and when Koran got up, his jaw dropped in amazement. Once everyone had walked up and congratulated him, they started dancing or eating, or just chatting with friends. The band was singing in the background.

_Why you gotta treat me like I'm a low down dirty_

_Climbin' up on thirty_

_Dress like a kid to make me feel young punk_

_And talk junk_

_You musta fell out of your bunk_

_And smacked your head_

_Or your face or somethin'_

Koran had exactly 3.4 seconds to look around, before someone gave him a noogie.

_I don't need nobody flyin' in my jet stream_

_Take the bus_

_Go on and get yourself your own dream_

"Didn't think you'd ever make it this far" said Marcus with a grin. "Nobody else has" added Nora. Koran grinned back at the five RRs—no, the _other_ five RRs. "Aw, guys, you didn't have to hire a _band_." Milo shrugged, and Sarah said, "We wanted to."

'_Cause this is my own life keepin' me down_

_Where I wanna be in my private nation_

_I'm alone all thinkin' life's a phone call_

_Here for just a while when in my private nation_

_You can ride or you can go_

He saw that she was standing on the ridge around a pillar. Koran walked over to her and held out a hand. "Truce?"

_Why you gonna step on shoes_

_When you don't know who's been in 'em_

_Have you ever been more than a bump_

_On a rock that likes to roll_

_In the middle of a soup bowl in the sky_

_Use your eyes_

_It's all you got till you die_

She considered it for a moment, then smiled and shook. "Truce." With that, she jumped off and Rian came over.

_I don't need nobody flyin' in my jet stream_

_Take the bus_

_Go on and get yourself your own dream_

"Congrats" he said to Koran. The younger kid nodded. "It won't be long until it's your turn" he told Rian.

'_Cause this is my own life keepin' me down_

_Where I wanna be in my private nation_

_I'm alone all thinkin' life's a phone call_

_Here for just a while when in my private nation_

Rian's eyes popped. "You mean **I** have to go through all that torture too??!!" Sarah laughed. "Heck no. Koran just needed to do it because he's the head honcho apprentice and all."

_You can ride on, it ain't free_

_Leave a light on, so you can see_

_How to get back when you go_

_How to get, how to give_

_How to make ends meet_

_How to lose, how to win_

_How to stay on the seat_

_How to use momentum to keep the two wheels straight_

_How to wait after it feels like you waited so long_

As Koran regarded his friends, he realized something. _All my life, I've been sad that I never had a family, and then I found out that they weren't anything to be proud of anyway. Well…_

_I don't need nobody flyin' in my jet stream_

_Take the bus_

_Go on and get yourself your own dream_

Koran grabbed some glasses of soda off of a passing waiter, handed one to each RR plus Rian, and raised his glass. "For the Royal Rambles, friends, and pranking our butts off."

_This is my own life keepin' me down_

_Where I wanna be in my private nation_

_I'm alone all thinkin' life's a phone call_

_Here for just a while when in my private nation_

As they all clinked their glasses, he thought, _…if I had known, when I was 10, that in 3 years I would have a family, I would have said that was crazy. But this… _

_This is my own life keepin' me down_

_Where I wanna be in my generation_

_I'm alone all thinkin' life's a phone call_

_Here for just a while when in my private nation_

His gaze rested on each of them. _This is my family now._

_You can ride on, it ain't free_

_Leave a light on, so you can see_

_How to get back when you go_

And with that, they partied till dawn.

* * *

**A/N: Wow, that ending was pretty cheesy, but I felt that I had to type that. This chapter, like all others, is dedicated to my reviewers: thank you, guys!**

**The next chap will actually continue the party for about half of it, then...CLASSIFIED!**

**Until the next time, remember reviews are 3, Wolf |-D  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Because I wanted a break from third person all the time, this is told from Sarah's POV. Also, Koran is now one of the main few characters out of the somewhat main characters. Basically, the rest of this story will be told from third person, Sarah's POV or Koran's POV.**

**

* * *

**

Chapter Twelve

I guess I was happy for Koran. He had finally left his father's legacy behind him—and we were definitely going to make him feel at home with the Royal Rambles.

So why did I feel a little suspicious?

He was kinda quiet for the party, he didn't do karaoke like last time. He actually spent a lot of time with Rian, even though they weren't related like Nora, Silas, and Marcus were to their long-lost cousin. Maybe he just wanted to hang out with an older kid for a while.

But that's none of _my_ biz.

I pretty much spent most of the party by the food. Then a _great_ song came on—the kind where you just have to dance, or you're going to start running around in a toga yelling "MERRY HAPPY HANUCHRISTZAA!!" on top of the Wizard Tower. I saw Milo nearby, he grinned at me, and then all of us jumped out on the floor and started dancing.

I suppose we led the pack, because once we were out there, everyone was. You know, Koran's not a bad dancer. He's also a pretty good singer. And I noticed…he's growing out his hair. He hasn't cut it in weeks. Heh, I saw that a lot of _girls _were watching him. Another thing we can tease him about.

Milo and I were breakdancing, and then after we executed a pretty good coffee-grinder flip thing, we heard our names: "Hey, Sarah, Milo!" We looked over to see Rian standing at the edge of the crowd, a cocky little half-smile on his face. "Quit parking on the dance floor."

My mouth dropped open in mock anger and I punched him on the shoulder on the way off the floor. "Get outta town, kid." "_Who's_ the kid?" he shot back with a smirk. I just grinned back and sat back to watch as Nora brought me a cookie.

A new song started, some kind of techno thing, and he just stood there until the beat kicked in; he started doing the robot, and I swear, I was having 'Star Wars' flashbacks.

It surprised me, _suddenly_, when the power went out. Rian's indignant voice broke the eerie silence after a few minutes as he grumbled, "Party pooper." I found myself laughing, and then the lights flickered and turned on as the music started back up; but this music was _boring_. It was slow, and school dance-ish. I felt someone tap my shoulder and I turned my head to see my Mum.

"I was looking for you" she said. "I wondered if you had seen your father somewhere. There was ale in the back, and I was hoping that he hadn't gone off with Sep and brought it in the room." I rolled my eyes. "No, you could ask Uncle Nicko." "Well, I'm worried that he might be with them." "Honestly, Mum. Okay, then ask Aunt Snorri." "That's my girl. Have you seen her?" "Last time I checked, she was over by the cushy chairs." "Okay, thanks, Sarah." My Mum looked around, then whispered, "That's odd; I thought I saw Koran. _Dancing_."

I snorted. "Mum, there's a lot of kids with black hair. And seriously, I don't think anybody our age who's actually _sane_ would be out there." She eyed me for a moment, then shrugged and walked off.

I had always admired my Mum; she had good advice for me all the time, and respected my opinions. Not that my Dad didn't; he was the funny one in the family, but he was a good Dad. Heck, my whole family's pretty cool, well, my _adoptive_ family. My real family, other than my father, mother, and brother, is dead, so yeah, I know them _reeeeal_ well.

I pushed off the weird, slightly disturbing news me Mum had given me, and headed over to where Marcus and Silas were chatting, and greeted them. "Hey, guys. Have any idea where Koran went?" They looked at each other and shrugged. "I dunno, maybe he's eating somethin', somewhere" said Silas with a mouthful of cake. "Please, you two," I scoffed. "Is that all you think about? Food?" "No, dancing and playing pranks holds a great deal of importance to us" said Marcus cheerfully. "Thank God, otherwise I would have wondered why the heck you're a Ramble."

So, due to my better judgement and the proof of the ignorance of my two cousins, I decided to look for him myself.

I checked the drinks and food tables first; you never know. After that, I looked around the dance floor. Nada, thank cheez-its, 'cause the slow songs were still playing. Geez, put on some rock, or something! We're a bunch of kids hyped up on sugar and caffeine, the least you could do is work some of that off by dancing.

It turns out he wasn't manning the lights, either. I wondered where in the world he was, when he burst through the front door with about a million, random, 12-to 16-year-olds. Oh great.

I managed to push through the crowd, and grab him by his collar, and drag him over to the chairs, all with his complaints of "Ow, Sarah, what the cr—oh holy YOW! Geez, what is your problem?" "My problem" I stated stiffly as I stared him down, "is why in the name of whoopee cushions did you just let in a zillion crazy kids into our private party?" "It's hardly a private party" he snorted. "Can you please let go?" "Very well" I said in a dignified voice, pivoted slightly, and dropped him on the floor.

He staggered up with a bump on his head. "Hmph. Anyway, we have people we don't know here, and maybe this'll brighten it up a bit." I sighed. "I guess you're right. But honestly, where'd you get all these kids?" "Oh, out and about. Hey, where's Myder?" "Oh, I think he went to check on the lights; you know those stupid Christmas lights: when one goes out--" They both finished the sentence together. "—they _all _go out." "Okay" said Koran. "I'll be off, then. And for the record"—he tapped his head—"I blame _you_ for ruining my incredible hotness."

I raised an eyebrow. "You? Incredible hotness? Please. I'll believe that when they make a seventh Star Wars movie.*" He just grinned and ran off, almost crashing into a kid holding a drink.

I sat down and grabbed a sandwich. As I chowed down—tuna, an okay sandwich—I thought about the RRs, but mostly about it's newest member and it's soon-to-be member. Rian, I knew, would have to be sworn in soon, for, unknown to the others, I was planning the best prank in the history of our pranks—which is a pretty long history, and I'm serious, I bored Uncle Sep just listing off our pranks for last year, and we've been doing this since we turned six—and I needed this seventh member.

Then I heard a cool song come on, and I finished my sandwich and dove back into the party.

* * *

I blinked my eyes open. I didn't remember going back to my own bed. But wait—now I do. For some reason I felt sore all over. And then I recalled that I had walked into at least 4 trees and 6 houses on the way back.

I hurried up waking the others and eating breakfast, but they must have noticed that something was on my mind, for Nora asked, "Hey, Sarah, what's up?"

So I made a decision. I was going to tell them about the prank. I grinned sneakily, looked around for any would-be-eavesdroppers, and whispered, "Okay, guys, this is the plan…"

* * *

***This doesn't make any sense to anybody but me and my friend Mcpooky.**  
**How'd ya like that, hmm? Nice to see what's actually going on in Sarah's pretty little head all the time.**  
**Alrighty, guys, here's the deal: you give me at least one review per chap (by more than just one person, wink wink) and I update. You don't, and I...don't update. This will be the thing for every one of my little cliffie chap endings.  
Thank you all, reviews are shiny, until next update, whenever that might be:**

**Wolf |-D  
**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: So, I decided to be nice, and upload chap 13. I really hope you guys are enjoying this.**

* * *

Chapter 13

All was quiet at dawn, about half a week later. Then a figure all in black ran out from behind a tree, looked around, and darted under a bush. The person put on some heat-vision goggles and scanned the area. It picked up something nearby, and hid deeper in the bush.

Where did this mysterious person get heat-vision goggles from? I dunno, I just write this and occasionally pop in.

Then, suddenly, something dropped from a tree and landed right in front of the bush. It stood up, pulled out a walkie-talkie, and whispered, "Dragon to Flower, where the heck are you? Over." "I'm right at your feet, you idiot, over." Milo jumped back in surprise and peered under the bush. "Oh, there you are. Come on, we need to quick get the rubber cement and 40 pounds of stale Snicker's bars." "Well, why didn't you say so?"

Sarah and Milo zoomed across about five people's back lawns, through a hotel, through an ice cream shop, and through the prank shop (Sarah quickly stopped to buy something called a Barfing Rubber Chicken—oh great), and then raced into a house, back again, and finally into the Wizard Tower, where they shot up to the 20th floor on the stairs, and, so it turns out, ran right into the ExtraOrdinary Wizard.

"Oof! What the heck are you two doing up here?" "Have you seen Rian?" Sarah panted. "Rian…the only boy in our family with blue eyes? Yeah, he was here earlier." "Did he leave with two big bags?" "Hmmm…I think so."

Milo silently cussed, while Sarah did out loud. Septimus rolled his eyes. "Where is he headed?" Sarah rounded on Milo. The kid closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath, then waited. After about half a minute he opened his eyes and said, "Good news. He's still trying to figure out how to open the secret lock."

"Excellent, bye Uncle Sep." The two kids shot downstairs and Septimus pulled out his cell phone, and dialed his sister. "Can you please tell me what the RRs are doing?"

Jenna, back at the Palace, replied, "I think it's kind of an entry thing for Rian. Oh, hang on." She put the phone down as Nora and Marcus came running downstairs with…fourteen boxes of Captain Crunch?

Distantly, Septimus heard Jenna say, "What the heck are you doing with that?" and Marcus' cheerful reply, "We're going to Disneyland!"

Jenna turned back to the phone. "Sometimes I wonder what really goes through their minds." Septimus agreed, then hung up.

Meanwhile, Koran and Silas were sneaking quietly to the boatyard. Their mission: to bring back three lines of rope, and a plank of wood that had to come from a broken boat.

Jannit was yelling orders to the workers when the two boys showed up. "Ah, it's Nicko's kid, and whats-his-name." "I'm Koran." "Yes. What do you need?" Silas pulled out a huge piece of parchment that, when unrolled, went down a hill and somebody slipped on it.

"We are the Royal Rambles, yadda yadda, new member, blah blah, require certain materials." "Like what?" "Three lengths of rope, a plank of wood from a broken boat, and two Kit Kat bars" listed Silas.

Jannit looked at the list. "Kit Kats aren't on here." "We're hungry" said Koran with a shrug.

So Jannit shouted, "Oi, there're some kids here! Who's willing to stop work to grab them some stuff?"

Koran lifted his right foot. The ground was vibrating as all the workers dived for the sheds. Jannit slapped her forehead. "_ONE_ of you!" she ordered. That started a punch fight.

"Okay, new approach: WHO HERE DOESN'T WANT TO EARN THEIR MONEY, JUST HELP SOME RANDOM KIDS??!!"

Boy, that stopped it.

Then a boat fell over with a crash, and rolled over to them. Jannit placed one foot on it, and tipped it over. Rack stumbled out, rubbing his head with a scowl. "Sorry, I um—oh, hey guys. What's up?" Silas pointed at the list.

Now fully armed, they left to meet the others at a hall. Sarah was already there with a clipboard, checking off items as people brought them in. "Hmm…bucket of chicken soup, oatmeal, 1st generation iPod nano, grandfather clock, War and Peace, deck of cards that mysteriously blows up in your face, baby crocodiles, more oatmeal, box of leaves, stick, pie, tool b—oh, hello" she said to Koran and Silas. "You're the last ones. Everyone else's already delivered their last stuff."

Koran dropped the plank of wood, Silas dropped the rope, and both tossed the Kit Kat wrappers into a nearby trash can. Sarah continued checking things off. "Plastic dog, Albert Einstein mask, Ice Age DVD, Spider-Man costume, lawn chair, 40 empty beer bottles, coaster, blanket, Uncle Sep's mail—cool, he ordered something from Amazon—lamp, plushie kitten, half a tree, rake, rug, and the broken boat wood, rope, and…why do I smell chocolate?"

Koran and Silas popped a lot of gum in their mouths. Silas laughed nervously. "Ah gunno, mehbe oters ate shome." Sarah rolled her eyes. "WHAT?"

Silas raised a hand as if to say, "Forget it" and looked around. "Where is everyone?" asked Koran. "In the back" said Sarah, pointing them. "Go ahead, we have to be ready for Rian."

I suppose, by now, you're wondering what in the good green earth they're doing? Well, I'll tell you.

Rian needs to get in the RRs so they can play the ultimate prank. Unlike Koran, he doesn't have to take the Test (thank cheez-its), but he only has to pass through one stage.

He is given a wide assortment of items, and he has to choose five that he will use to help him scale the side of the building. The rules: he can't use just one out of the five, he has to get up there in half an hour, and he can't use any other items that he just finds.

Finally, Rian showed up. He was holding two bags and he dropped them at Sarah's feet. "So that's where they went" she growled. Rian grinned. "Did I pass?"

"That wasn't the test" said Milo, poking his head out from behind the grandfather clock. "But you said it was!" the older boy exclaimed indignantly. "We lied. Get over it" snapped Sarah, clambering up on the box of leaves. "Okay, here is your mission: you must scale the outside wall of this building within half an hour, using five of these items. You must only use five, you have to use all of the five."

Rian nodded, looking over the items thoughtfully. He then began to dig around.

A few minutes later, he had chosen the Spider-Man costume (duh), the rope, Septimus' mail, the rake, and—"Can I bring my cell phone?" "Sure" replied Sarah, her pencil whizzing over the paper.

"Oh—what happens if I fall?" "You're not in the RRs and you can't try to enter again for another 5 years." Rian rolled his eyes. "I MEAN, what if I fall? Am I dead?" "Ohh, I see. No, that trampoline should be showing up about n—" "Sarah! A trampoline fell from the sky! Was that supposed to happen?"

She sighed and yelled, "No, Marcus, trampolines just randomly drop from the sky. WHAT DO YOU _THINK, _YOU DOLT??!!"

Sarah walked outside in a huff, and poked her head back inside. "Waiting for the paint to peel? Come on, get out here."

Rian shrugged and followed her.

He looked up at the wall. "Okay, I'm ready." He pulled on the Spider-Man costume (minus the mask), attached the rake to his belt, made sure his cell phone was in a zippered pocket along with Septimus' mail, and gripped the rope in his teeth.

He jumped on the wall and used the grips on the Spider-Man costume to casually crawl up the wall. He looked down; the others had moved the trampoline into place.

He crawled up to a balcony, where he took off the Spider-Man costume, and he pulled out the rope. "Oi, Rian!" He looked down. Sarah was waving her arms. "Quarter-way!" she shouted. He saluted in response and got back to his task.

The 15-year-old tied a loop in the rope and cast his eyes around for a good place to swing it. He found a lantern holder up a bit higher, and narrowed his eyes as he tried to pinpoint the position.

Gritting his teeth, he lashed the rope and it…missed by three centimeters. Rian swore.

He tried it again...missed by a foot. Rian swore again.

He tried it again…and it hooked! No, wait, it fell. Rian swore loudly.

He tried it again…and he got it, finally. He then proceeded to climb up the rope to the lantern holder.

Once he had almost reached it, he pulled on the Spidey gloves and climbed up the wall to one of those extended windowsills. He took them off again and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed a certain Mr. Heap. "Hello?" "Hi, Uncle Sep." "Oh, Rian. How can I help you, dear nephew?" "Well, I found your mail." "Oh, good. I was wondering what happened to it. I'll come and get it. Where are you?" "Uhh…hang on, I'll check my GPS."

Rian put Septimus on hold and slid through stuff to find his GPS. "Hmmm…looks like I'm on—er, in one of the rental buildings on Jackpot Street." "Kay, I'll be there." "Oh, don't let the other RRs see you, okay? 'Cause it was them who took your mail." "Sigh, okay, I won't be seen. See ya." "Over and out."

Rian tried to hoist himself up a bit higher while he waited, to no success.

A figure landed on the balcony and Rian almost flew off in surprise. "Happy Christmas" said Septimus as he saw Rian. "Merry Easter" he replied. "Here's your mail, can you levitate me up to that last overhang?" He pointed to a long overhang that was about six feet below the roof of the building. Septimus nodded. "Sure." He put his mail in a pocket and stared at Rian, concentrating.

Soon he looked down and realized that he was floating in the air. Gently, Septimus set him down on the overhang. "There ya go!" he said cheerfully. "Now, I'm going to go pay that bill…" And the ExtraOrdinary Wizard vanished.

Rian then unclipped the rake and latched it to one of those ornamental things that were on all older buildings. Clenching his jaw, he yanked and struggled to push himself up.

Finally, after almost 5 minutes of pulling on a rake with his bare hands (_that_ would chafe), Rian clambered up onto the rope and grinned at the world.

He heard the applause from below. "Jump!" came the cry. He found the trampoline but, being the cocky and somewhat sly kid that he was, he put the Spidey costume back on, and snapped the web shooter.

The said web shot to a building across the street. Rian swung over the heads of his astounded audience, then, just before he reached the building, he sent a web flying over to a lower spot on the first building.

He flew back and forth until his feet grazed the ground, then he casually jumped down.

Rian grinned at his friends around him as they congratulated and praised him for his quick thinking and ideas. Then Sarah walked up. She looked him in the eye and held out a hand. "Welcome to the Royal Rambles" she said with a proud smile. He shook and Sarah raised his hand. "The newest RR: Rian Heap!!"

And to the 15-year-old, who had never known friends or family, finally had both.

* * *

**Edit A/N: For some reason, I think the song Fields of Despair by Dragonforce really fits Queste. If you like speed metal or at least don't mind it, go and listen to it NOW and maybe you'll see what I mean.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I've had this idea sitting around in my pretty little head forever, so I finally decided to use it.**

Chapter 14

A week had passed, and Sarah was planning yet another party. Everyone was lounging by the pool and drinking soda. The radio was blasting techno, and they were having the time of their life.

Sarah frowned in concentration and scratched something down with her pencil, then jumped up and ran inside the house screaming, "ZAAAAAA!!! I'VE GOT IT!!"

Marcus looked away from his comic book and stuck his thumb at the direction where Sarah had left. "What's with her?" Silas shrugged. "Oh, you know Sarah, every few days she'll be running somewhere, yelling something."

A few minutes later, she came out and said excitedly, "I've got a great idea! You know how we have to wait for the piranhas to breed before we can do the big prank?" Everyone nodded slowly. "Well, there's a party coming up, and I've decided that will b e the opening of our new webshow!"

Everyone's jaws dropped. "Webshow? That's the smartest thing you've said all day," said Koran, lowering his sunglasses slightly. "Finally, something we can do. Your cousins are about to explode from all those pranks we played on them. And Sep has asked me if you can not lay any on him until the replaces the windows and gets rid of the honey and black bears. Oh, and he doesn't want you to feed Spit Fyre anymore, either." Sarah rolled her eyes.

"I suppose he's still angry about the sugar incident."

"What are we going to do on our webshow?" asked Nora. "Oh, we'll do stupid stuff, make jokes, and prank people and film it," said Sarah happily. "Dance, party, sing, and put up funny videos." "Sounds interesting," commented Rian. "All we need is a video camera and a laptop. Oh, and some cables and wires and stuff." "I'll check the house" said Milo, and raced inside.

Everyone slurped his or her 128-ounce blue raspberry Icees while waiting. Milo came out with a checklist. "We have almost everything. I looked it up and we need some stuff." Sarah clapped her hands. "Sounds like a plan. Gang, gather round."

"Alright, Milo, you handle the cables and wires." He nodded and took his page. "Marcus and Silas, get the wallpaper and props. You know, cool stuff." They saluted and took their page, scanning it. She pointed at Nora. "Nora, the lights." She tore off her page and tucked it in her pocket. "Koran, go find a room in the Palace that no one's living in and clean all the stuff out of it." "Oh, of course, I get the most boring job" he grumbled. "Rian, the downstairs walk-in closet has all the cameras. Test them and take the best one up to the room that Koran's working on." He grinned in response. Sarah then tapped herself on the head. "I'll go buy us a site. If anyone needs anything from anyone else, call him or her. Move out!"

Milo was digging around in a big box of wires. After only finding one of the three that he needed, he ran down the street to "Technology Unlimited" and bought them.

Marcus and Silas took a taxi downtown to a big Home Décor store, which they promptly found fascinating. There were carpets, flooring, wood, wallpaper…

They decided on a giant smiley face carpet to hang on the wall and purchased a disco dance floor. For the rest of the wall, they got dog shadow prints on a pale yellow background.

Nora found a store that sold lamps and lights. She got some lights with black stands and bases, and two multicolored disco balls. She met up with her brothers and they bought the props together: a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a 58" screen TV, four bean bags (rainbow), some of those big bouncy balls that are supposed to be used for exercise but they're not, and a remote that you could program.

As Koran found a nice, big, empty room, and started to clean it out, Rian was going through cameras. He ended up with two, a mammoth one and a yay-big one. He decided on the yay-big and started to fiddle with it to learn how it worked.

Sarah had quickly purchased a web site, and was now decorating it. With a flourish, she clicked on the 'enter' button, and it popped up. At the top of the screen it read, "iBRoyal" and then listed all their names and what they did. There was a space for comments, a little drop-down list where older shows would go, and of course a big empty space for the newest show.

Grinning like an idiot, she quickly called all her relatives and friends. "It's done" she told them. "Koran, give me directions to the room and I'll get the laptop in." "Righto" he replied. "Fourth floor, 3rd room on the right of the elevator." "Excellent. Everyone to that room."

No surprise, she got there first, and Rian had just run in. He was playing his DS and his PSP at the same time. Koran was just flicking some plaster around. He looked up when she came in, and remarked, "Did you know that half of these old buildings are spackle? No knife-throwing, kay?" Sarah crossed her arms. "The Palace is _not_ spackle, that stuff was added later when the walls started to crumble and it cost $3000 a day to actually rebuild them. Spackle was the cheapest decision."

"And since when have the Royal families cared about price?" asked Rian as he multitasked. "Before I showed up" said Sarah proudly.

She has a bit of a superiority complex, doesn't she?

Yes, she does. In fact, most people have a superiority complex. Your narrator for instance.

The narrator, in the form of a gray dog with numerous strange markings, walked out. She scratched her head as she contemplated a piece of paper, erased something, and asked Sarah, "If you were to fill an entire building with liquid, what would you use?" "Definitely Dr. Pepper" said Sarah with a nod. Your narrator wrote something, grinned, said "Thanks" to Sarah, and left the set.

Immediately afterwards, everyone else ran in. Milo clapped his hands, and then turned around and made an "over here" gesture. All the stuff was dropped off, and the seven kids eyed it, knowing it was home decorating time.

After about 30 minutes, they were done. Sarah nodded in approval. "Wonderful work, everyone." Rian bowed mockingly. Finally, they could start.

Once they hooked up all the wires, that is.

Marcs volunteered to run the camera this show, so he sat down in a rolling chair behind the desk and pressed a button. "And we're on in...three…two…one!"

Sarah greeted their watchers with a loud, "Hello, everyone, and welcome to the very first live broadcast of iBRoyal, the show where you can see us do stupid and hilarious hijinks!

"Sarah, that's not a word!" yelled the narrator from her computer screen. "See, it's got the little lines under it! The red ones!"

"It's a word if I say it's a word!" Sarah shouted back. "I'm royalty, and you're not, so it's a word!"

Your narrator rolled her eyes, blue now that she was a human again, and kept typing.

"Anyway, today, as the welcoming of our new show, we're going to play a little game! Koran get your butt over here." He shambled over. Sarah grinned widely and she twitched her nose.

This was a signal for Nora to turn on the spotlight. It shone down on our Apprentice friend. "Anyone who can guess his favorite juice drink gets to have us throw rotten vegetables at him!" said Sarah gleefully. Koran's jaw dropped in horror.

Their phones began ringing. Everyone except Marcus and Koran picked up a phone.

"Apple!" "Cranberry!" "Grape!" "Orange!" "Passion fruit!"

"That's it!" crowed Sarah. And she chucked a moldy tomato at Koran's head.

It hit him with a loud splatter and he grumbled loudly.

Apparently your narrator forgot that tomatoes are actually fruits. Did you know that corn is actually a grain? Weird, huh?

"Now, whoever can guess his most ultimate, most secret dream? We'll throw a cabbage at him this time!"

She held it up. It was covered in dirt and worms were in the dirt.

"CABBAGE!!" screamed a random voice.

The phones rang again.

"To fly!" "To get rich!" "To finally beat one of you in something!" "To not have vegetables thrown at him!" "I can't tell because he told me to keep it secret, and kids, stop throwing vegetables."

Sarah held the phone away. "Uncle Sep, you're clogging the phone line!" she complained. "I don't care, I'm not getting off until you promise not to throw vegetables" came his stern voice. Sarah rolled her eyes. "Fine, we won't throw vegetables of any kind." "Good." And Septimus hung up.

A sly grin lit Sarah's features. "Change of plans, audience. If you can guess Koran's favorite eye color, we chuck a bucket of chum and fish heads on him." "Where'd we get chum and fish heads?" asked Silas, scratching his head. Sarah shrugged. "Found it at the boatyard. It's not like anyone wants it."

The phones rang for the third time. "Green!" "Blue!" "Yellow!" "Orange!" "Red!" "Brown!" "Gray!" "Hazel!" "Black!"

Nothing happened.

Milo turned to Sarah. "Wait, we never found out his favorite eye color." She shrugged again. "Well, it's got to be one of those."

"No, it's not!" Koran blurted out, looking disgusted at the thought of chum and fish heads.

Everyone looked at him. "Then what is it?" asked Rian, his eyebrows raised.

He struggled to find one, glancing around, and he settled on "Ermm…grass?" "That's green" said Sarah, who was gazing off into space. "No, that's not it! It's….uh…white?"

"But nobody has white eyes" said Marcus from behind the camera. He signaled to Silas to dangle the bucket of fish stuff dangerously over Koran's head.

"What's left…what's left…" he muttered in a wild tone. Then a phone rang.

"Is it purple?" asked the caller. Nobody noticed that a certain someone had left the set.

Koran was panicking. Everyone was waiting.

"NO!!" he screamed. "I _DON'T _HAVE A FREAKING FAVORITE EYE COLOR!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!"

And with that he raced out of the room.

Nobody spoke.

Then, the lights went out and the disco ball started flashing as a deep voice said, "And now, the Awkward Silence song!!"

"How did that turn on?!" yelled Sarah over the loud chorus of "AWKWARD SILENCE!! Awkward silence, awkward silence…AWKWARD SILENCE!!" The certain someone had gotten back onto the set and shook their head. "I dunno!"

But they all started dancing. Sarah looked at her watch and shouted, "We're out of time, lardies and germs, so we'll see you next week on…"

All six of them screamed, "iBRoyal!!!!" And before the camera closed down, Milo yelled, "Random flashy things!" and Marcus yelled back, "Computer documents!"

A code, or just being boys? I don't know, they boggle my mind.

They struggled to turn off the Awkward Silence song, and when they managed it, they slumped in a heap and panted.

"That was wild" commented Silas. "Agreed" wheezed Rian.

"I wonder if Koran's favorite eye color actually is purple" remarked Marcus to Milo. Milo shrugged (they do that a lot in this chapter, don't they?) and said, "It's kinda weird, though. I mean, who has purple eyes?"

And a certain someone smiled smugly when no one else noticed.

As two kids, one black- and one tawny-haired, ran into each other right outside of the Palace.

* * *

**A/N: Wow, that was a long update. God, I really apologize, but what with school, choir, and drawing, I've really had no time. I like drawing and writing equally, I can't choose one over the other, but I've just had no motivation or ideas. Hopefully other updates will come faster.  
Yes, I like referring to myself. The dog was my fursona, Mija, whom you can find at my deviantART account (I am Jupiter-Wolf).  
He he. I love these awkward moments/humor suspense things.  
The Awkward Silence song was actually something that Mcpooky and I came up with about a year ago. We've loved it forever.  
Anyway, reviews are lovee, until next time-  
Wolf/Jupiter/Mija/Skye. **


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Eegad, I haven't uploaded for a while, have I? D:  
Sorry for the long wait, homies, I've been really busy with school and choir and such.  
In this chapter, we see what Koran thinks...and a really creepy metaphor 0.o  
I've been kind of depressed lately, so if this isn't as funny as it usually is, blame the incredible amount of schoolwork my teachers are forcing upon me :P**

Chapter 15

It was a cloudy afternoon, and everybody was inside their houses.

Unfortunately.

Jenna was sitting on the couch watching her soaps and eating popcorn when Sarah came running past. She stopped at the couch and asked, "We got any duct tape?" "In the top cupboard in the storage room" her mum replied, and Sarah took off again.

Minutes later Rian came stumbling down the stairs. His hair was smoking. He gasped out, "You have any GASP spare wires GASP?" "Second floor, third room to your left, filing cabinet three" Jenna answered. And Rian headed up the stairs.

Not long after, there was a yelp, and Silas fell down the stairs. "Ooow…" he complained, rubbing his head. "Auntie, do we have a spare gaming station and/or TV?" "Third floor storage room." Silas followed Rian up the stairs.

Then Nora came sauntering downstairs, carrying a wrench and a carving knife. She was wearing an apron that was spattered with oil. The smell alerted Jenna, and she finally turned around.

"What in the name of heaven are you doing?" "I can't tell you, sorry Auntie" said Nora, shrugging. "Can I go to the junkyard and take apart a car?" "Only if someone goes with you." Then there were sounds of a fight, and Marcus and Milo came crashing down the stairs, punching and kicking. Then there was a shout, and Koran flew down the stairs and landed on them. They were a fighting, yelling mess.

"BOYS!" They broke apart. "What are you fighting over?" "Nothing, mum" said Milo cheerfully, though he was clutching his left arm that now sported a brilliant bruise. Koran asked, "Can we take a few ice packs? We think that he might flame up again." "Again?! Kids, what are you doing up there?!"

They all glanced at each other. "We've sworn not to tell, but don't worry, you'll figure it out soon, Auntie" said Marcus. "Yeah" said Koran. "But please don't freak. Or he'll get angry." "He?!"

There was a shout from the third floor. "Hey, I need someone to help me carry this plasma TV out!" "I'll come!" Marcus yelled, and he ran up the stairs.

Two minutes later, there was a crash and a yelp. "Okay, we need one more person!" "I'll help!" responded Milo, and he too ascended the stairs.

Jenna pointed at Koran. "Nora needs to go to the Junkyard, but it's in the deeper parts of town. Go with her." He nodded. "Okay."

They headed out the door.

~~~~~~~~Koran's POV~~~~~~~~~~

I walked with Nora through the numerous streets. As I looked around, recognizing people (more of them recognizing me), my thoughts turned to my friends.

Milo…my best friend.

Marcus and Silas…the funny guys.

Rian…the slightly uncomfortable older kid.

Sarah…the insane psychopath.

Nora…the kid who holds the rest together.

I looked at her. She seemed quite serene. Her blue eyes were closed. I looked away.

Gah. Girls.

As if I didn't have enough problems with girls already.

No, seriously. I'm the Apprentice; all of these random Ordinary Wizard apprentices sometimes look at me like I'm God or something. It's freaky. Especially because they're all older than me.

Before you start, no I do not fancy anyone yet.

Weeelll….

NO.

I'm not even going to CONSIDER that. You'd have to be mad, crazy, brain-dead, or vocal cords larger than your head.

And I am not and have not any of the above.

Maybe sometimes I'm a little crazy.

But nothing else.

You'd be mental to do something like that. It would destroy my life (and probably my eardrums) if I did.

"There's the junkyard." Nora's voice broke though my thoughts. "Let's go."

And we turned in.

We scrambled through heaps of scrap metal until Nora found something. She tried to dig it out, and I passed the time thinking.

I thought a lot. I like to ponder on things and think about where I'm going in my future.

My future? Oh, I expect I'll spend many glorious years working with Septimus and eventually becoming the head honcho wizard. Then I'll take a promising apprentice and when I turn 70, I'll retire, leaving that apprentice in charge.

Yep, I've got a pretty good future ahead of me.

~~~~Mija's POV~~~~~~

I am smirking as I type this, for I have torture planned for Koran! He will wish he was never born! HA HA HAAA!!

No, or course I'm not telling you. Only I know.

Sorry for breaking in, I just wanted to disturb the peace, goodbye.

~~~~~Koran's POV~~~~~~~

"I got the stuff, let's go" said Nora as she leapt down from a broken car. I was about to follow her when I noticed something.

There were two bugs on the ground, I couldn't remember quite what kind. One was bigger than the other, but they were the same species. They were fighting.

I was absorbed. They buzzed in and out around each other, striking with their mandibles and kicking with their tiny feet. The buzzing got so loud it hurt my ears.

And then it stopped. The bugs looked away from each other. They didn't move for a few seconds.

One of the bugs went over to the other one and flapped it's little wings. The other one did as well. And then they flew in a circle together, and took to the sky, flying beside each other until I couldn't see them anymore.

Well, that was odd. It was a metaphor, probably, for something.

I shook my head. Metaphors are nonsense. What would the bugs have been a metaphor for, anyway?

I had a suspicion.

I shook my head. That was ridiculous. To clear my mind, I dug around in my pockets and found one of my iPods; it was one of my spare Shuffles.

I put the headphones in and heard Nora's annoyed call. "Are you going to come some time this year, Koran?"

"I'm coming, I'm coming" I called. I clicked the play button and a song started to play.

_I hate everything about you, why do I love you; I hate everything about you, why do I love you…_

_Only when I stop to think about you, do I know…_

~~~~~~Third Person~~~~~

Nora strode farther along, a wicked smirk on her face. She had seen the bugs, though she had first dismissed them as coincidence, she was now convinced that something was going on.

Looking flustered, Koran caught up to her. She raised an eyebrow at him. "You like insects?" "Wha—oh. Yes I do."

They got back quicker than they expected, and they heard an explosion from upstairs, and shout. "Quick, get the bucket!" "Where is it?!" "In the bathroom! Hurry, or the whole thing might implode!"

Nora and Koran looked at each other, then raced up the stairs.

They stopped at the table. Koran's jaw dropped.

On the table lay a robot.

The robot was silver-plated, with closed eyes. It had movable fingers, and it could even twitch its nose.

"Oh…my…_wow_" breathed Nora. Sarah grinned proudly. "It took a while, but now he should be fully functional."

"What should we call him?" asked Silas, who was staring at the robot.

"Hmmm…how about Jason?" "Steve?" "Bob?" "Joe?" "Carl?" "Matthew?"

Sarah decided. "Behold the robot wonder that is Steve!"

"STEVE STEVE STEVE STEVE STEVE!!!!" everyone chanted as they ran around the robot.

They all fell silent as he sat up. His eyes were dark blue.

"Ahh, life! Hmm, where am I?"

His eyes rested on each of the seven kids. "Children, kindly tell me who built me."

"We did" said Sarah. "We built you to have a companion. Oh, and we can play video games on you."

"Really?" mused the robot. "And what is my name?" "You are Steve" said Sarah clearly.

"Okay, yeah, that sounds good. Now, what exactly did you put in me?" "An old Playstation 3 and a bunch of stuff from a plasma TV, as well as sound, brain, and personality chips."

"What personalities?" asked Steve, still looking around the room. "Let's see…sarcasm, friendliness, cheer, cynicism, intelligence, defiance, hyper-ness, rebellion, and wit" listed off Sarah.

"Basically, everything we have" put in Marcus.

"Interesting" said Steve. Sarah went to the door. "Come on, Steve, Mum wants to see what we've been working on the whole day."

And so the kids and their new robot went downstairs.

"Hey, Mum!!" called Sarah. Jenna raised her head and—"AAAH!!"

"Mum, please don't freak out by Steve" said Milo.

"STEVE?! WHAT IS THAT THING?!!"

"Apparently I am a combination of plasma TV parts and a Playstation 3" said Steve in his voice that did not sound at all like robots in movies.

"AAAH! It spoke!"

"Mum! Don't worry, he's fine. He'll be our buddy and help us with stuff. Look, he can even teleport—" Suddenly Steve vanished.

He appeared a few feet away. "Interesting" he remarked.

Sarah turned back to her mother. "So he can go places when we don't want anyone to see him."

"Yeah, I mean, if people knew we knew how to build a robot, they'd be knocking down the front door! Everyone would want their own," Marcus added.

Jenna thought for a moment. "Okay. You can keep him." "He's not a _pet_, Mum" said Milo indignantly. "We were going to keep him anyway."

She rolled her eyes. "I have some conditions." Everyone groaned. "One, you keep him in the TV room on the third floor when we have guests over. Two, you don't tell any of your friends or cousins unless you know they'll keep their mouths shut. Three, don't take him out in public. You want to get somewhere, have him teleport there when you're about to get there and then he has to stay by you. He cannot go wandering off." Everyone nodded.

Jenna narrowed her eyes. "One more thing…" Everyone groaned again. "You will not use him to scarw people in pranks." "Aw, _Mum_!" complained Sarah.

Then Koran's ringtone sounded from his pocket. "_With a thousand lies and a good disguise, hit 'em right between the eyes, hit em'—_" "Hello?"

He listened and then said, "Yeah, okay. I'll be right over."

He closed his phone. "I have work to do" he explained. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

They all said goodbye as he left the building.

~~~~~~~Koran's POV~~~~~~

As I strode along the streets, I found myself thinking again. I grinned as I had a wild fantasy of Sarah and Steve getting into a huge argument over the game controller.

Then I sighed.

To be honest, I was having some internal turmoil. I was reminded of my encounter with Rack last week.

We had run into each other as I was fleeing from the extremely awkward first webshow. We both had fallen over. Rack seemed apologetic at first, but then he was kind of cold.

I suppose he's got something against me. I think I know why.

No. You'll laugh.

Then I asked him, "Why haven't we seen you in a while?" And he had replied, "Well, I've been busy down at the boatyard, you know."

But I had seen right though him. It was almost winter; we had to bundle up when we went outside now. Nobody wants to fish in freezing weather.

I had lied and said, "I see." Then a silence, and then he muttered something that sounded like, "Mumble grumble Koran, mumble grumble rival."

Oh please.

I think I know what he means by rival, and I was torn between shouting at him and laughing my arse off.

Good god.

So I said quietly to him, "Rack, listen, I don't want to be your rival." He looked at me, surprised, and asked, "Seriously?" I nodded and promised, "Seriously. I swear by anything you hold sacred."

He held out his hand. I shook it. "We're agreed" he told me. Then he grinned. "Let's bury the prejudice, then."

I nodded again. Then I had walked away.

One week later, and that conversation _still_ doesn't make any sense.

At least Rack's not my enemy anymore.

And we agreed on…something.

That's good, right?

I think so.

God help me; I think either I ruined my life or saved it.

~~~~Mija's POV~~~~

Oh, Koran, you have no idea….

MWA HA HA.

* * *

**A/N: Well, that was...interesting, right?  
Koran's trying to work out his feelings. I remember doing the same thing around his age. It was no picnic, believe me D:  
Well, who's got Syren? I got it the 29th of September, and I think it was one of the best yet. Especially introducing "Banana Man" as I call him XD  
Oh yeah, I have a new obsession.  
I know you guys will kill me, here it goes...**

**I support JennaxMerrin.**

**Now my public is going to slowly fade away. You all will hate me and want to murder me.  
This shipping will show up in an upcoming SH story called Nightmares. It will take place when all of the main characters are 16 years old, someone has been corrupted, broken the heart of his lover, and now he wants to kill...  
Oh, wait.  
I will only post it if it will not be flamed.  
But I'll probably be flamed anyway D:**

**Please no torches,**

**Mija**

**EDIT: I forgot to name Koran's ringtone. It is You're Gonna Go Far, Kid by The Offspring. Also, the song on his iPod was I Hate Everything About You by Three Days Grace.  
**


	16. Chapter 16

**Well, this update actually came earlier than I expected...probably because of my writers block on TOC :/  
This is off topic, but my nails are now a shiny silver! 8D They're so awelysomesauce!  
This December chap is a little early because there will be a lot of drama in December :3 what with snow, eggnog, and Christmas, these next few chapters are going to be chock-filled with food fun, snow fun, and, of course, more awkwardness and teenager confusion! Oh, happy days!  
Mcpooky, you now share a birthday with Nora, Silas, and Marcus ^^ Thank you for being the best buddies ever.**

* * *

Chapter 16

About two weeks had passed since the RRs built Steve. It was the beginning of December in the Castle, and you know what that means.

You don't? All right, I'll tell you.

Three words: Holidays, snow, and presents.

Sarah woke up at 6:00 one December morning, and pressed her nose against the window.

Soft white flakes were falling, and the ground was carpeted with white.

"IT'S SNOWING!!!!" she screamed loudly.

Every other kid was also screaming, "IT'S SNOWING, IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!"

After a quick breakfast, the five kids went out to…uh…work.

Milo was scanning a large area with heat-sensory goggles.

"Brrr. Brrr. Brrr. Brr...ah, heat."

He gave a thumbs up to a tree beside him. Where someone was, of course, ready to throw a snowball.

WHACK! "OW!!"

The five enjoyed a good guffaw before Nora's phone rang.

"_Its just you and me, and all of the people with nothing to do, nothing to lose, and that's you and me, and all of the people, and I don't know why, I can't keep my eyes off of you_"—"Hello?"

Nora's eyes widened with interest. Then she grinned. "Excellent. When can we pick them up? In one hour? All right, can I have the address?"

Marcus passed her a pen and paper as she wrote it down. "Okay, we'll be there in an hour. Thank you."

She hung up. Everyone was on her at once. "Who was it? Who was it?"

"The TNT, dynamite, and various other explosives" said Nora. "What did you want to do with it, Sarah?"

Everyone turned to look at her. She opened her mouth and was about to speak when _her _phone rang.

"_Things are so much harder now no matter how I try, junkyard days and toxic waste still love is on my mind; I can see the ledge now, the Golden Gate is falling_ _from behind (falling from behind), well if you call this living, I just wanna hang my head and cry_"—"'Ello, you have reached The Everything Store. You want it, we have it."

She rolled her eyes at the others as they stifled chuckles. "No, I'm not an employee, I'm the boss. And just for calling, I'm going to have to sue you."

Silas and Marcus had fallen over. They were shaking with suppressed laughter. Nora kicked both of them.

"I don't care if this is a wrong number. No, I don't care who your mentor is. So shut up and give me your address and your lawyer's name. You don't have a lawyer? Looks like you're guilty of clogging up my phone line. You owe me $1,000,000."

Now everyone was laughing.

"Sheesh, Koran, you're so gullible. Honestly. It's Sarah, you idiot. What do you want?"

She stiffened. The others craned over to hear what he was saying.

When she spoke again her voice was forced calm. "I know that. And you're right to be pissed at him. But that doesn't mean you have to call me, I can figure that out by myself. Is there anything else? Oh, okay. When's he coming back? Christmas? Cool. We're gonna have a massive party. Oh, Snacking Cousins and Nora's birthday is the 3rd of January. We're not gonna combine New Year's and birthday parties, we're just going to have two parties within the space of three days. You like that? Good. You're not off today? Ah well. When are you off? Okay, see you tomorrow. Bye."

She hung up. Now everyone was asking her about that conversation.

Sarah took a deep breath and answered: "Rack thinks that Koran is a rival, but he thinks that's stupid, and he told Rack he didn't want to be enemies, so now they have a truce, oh, and Rian's going to school until Christmas, then he'll be gone until May, and we're going to have three parties for Christmas, New Years, and you three's birthday, so it's going to be pretty hectic, oh and Steve is helping Koran with some homework, so that's why we haven't seen him all day."

She took another deep breath. Everyone was staring at her. Nora smirked widely. Sarah noticed.

"What're you grinning about?" she asked her cousin cautiously. "Oh…nothing" she said with a bigger smug look spreading across her face.

Sarah frowned. "Excuse us, boys."

She grabbed Nora by the arm and led her over to a bush.

"You've been acting funny for a while now" she hissed. "What's going on, Nora?"

Nora gave her a knowing look and said matter-of-factly, "Well, I can't tell you. You would kill me if I did. You would kill me so hard, I'd probably die twice."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Whatever." Nora continued. "You see, I am amazingly perceptive. Sometimes I can tell what people are thinking. Or I can name their words before they say them. Or even swap what people say with what they really think about whatever they're saying. For instance, when we decided to bring Rian with us on our trip to Great-Aunt Zelda's, Rack told us it would be okay. However, I could tell he was thinking, 'Oh for the love of God, another freaking rival.' And then he said…well, I won't repeat it exactly, as it was pretty rude, but—"

Sarah was ignoring her cousin. She was fuming. Rack, however useful he was, could sometimes be a pain in the $$. He couldn't have a friendship with any boy that wasn't related to Sarah, because he considered them all "rivals". She would have to confront him once and for all, sometime this week.

And Nora practically heard her thoughts. "You know, talking's not the only option." Her eyes were gleaming with amusement. Sarah looked at her suspiciously. "You could always just—"

But this time Sarah intercepted Nora's thoughts. "_No_. Absolutely not. I'm just going to tell him, and if he gets hurt, it's not on my conscience."

Nora rolled her eyes. "Because you don't have one?" Sarah nodded and said proudly, "I feel no guilt for anything. Ask Milo."

The two of them went back to the others and they continued to hammer random people with snowballs. But Sarah was feeling a bit odd. As if she was denying something that could destroy her if she left it alone too long.

Your narrator is incredibly good at building suspense, but terrible at subtlety.

So if you're already guessing what's going on, don't spoil it for everyone else.

A loud crash sounded as a large textbook hit the wall.

"ERRRRRGH!!" Steve checked his watch. "You have 45 more minutes." "_ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!_"

Steve looked sternly down at one of his creators. "Screaming doesn't help. Just calm down and think."

Koran buried his face in his hands. He was having a bit of a hard time in Wizarding History; he had to write an entire essay on the effects of the wizards in the 1800s, including wizards from the other minor countries. He had gotten his way through the 10s, the 20s, the 30s, and the 40s, but was stuck on he year 1854, in which a wizard named Oswald Blake successfully managed to complete the first **Backwards Spell**. He had to copy down every single thing that went in place to write a **Backwards Spell**, then do it and record his results, but the book wasn't very good at describing it.

Steve picked up the book and turned back to the page. "Let's try it again. You wrote a shapeshifting backwards spell; try it out on the pencil again."

Koran gave a huge sigh, then recited the words in a bored, desperate tone. "**Eb ouy llams, eb ouy gib, eb ouy kaew ro eb ouy taerg, tfihsepahs otni tahw I yas; Nep!**"

He was trying to turn it into a pen. The pencil rose into the air, hovered for a second, then grew little stick legs and started tap-dancing.

Koran groaned again. "What am I doing wrong?!" Steve scanned the book page. "Ah, I found it. You have to pronounce each word backwards as well, otherwise it will do something completely random."

So Koran tried pronouncing the words backwards as he said them. It took him three tries, but then finally the pencil rose, hovered, then changed smoothly into a black pen.

"YESSS!!!" he cheered. Then his phone rang.

"_Show me how to lie, you're getting better all the time, and turning all against one isn't all that's hard to change_"—"Hello?"

The voice on the line said, "Open your window and stick your head out."

He rolled his eyes, but complied.

The bright light made him squint. He looked around, saw nothing, and was about to retreat into his rooms when a snowball hit him in the face.

"Aww, I'm gonna kill you guys!!" he yelled out the window. He swore he heard them laughing.

He wiped the snow off his face and closed the window. "Who was it?" asked Steve.

"The originals" he grunted, then erased a few lines of his paper to put in the pronouncing line.

45 minutes later, Septimus came in. "Knock knock!" he sang loudly. Koran jumped out of his chair and it tipped over with a CRASH!

Koran looked up at Septimus. "Never do that again" he growled. Septimus looked over Koran's work. "Hmm…hmmm…hmmmmmmm….good, you've gotten far. You'll continue this tomorrow. Now go have some fun."

Koran grinned. "Can I take my snow cannon you gave me as a present?" "Sure, go ahead. You'll need it."

So, armed with a snow cannon and his wits, Koran set off down the street.

Everything was strangely quiet. Koran was suspicious. Normally, he would be hearing the shouts, screams, and laughs of kids on a snow day.

He muttered something under his breath, and then he vanished.

Invisible, he looked around. Unfortunately, he still left footprints.

WHACK!! "OW!" he yelled, and rubbed the back of his head. He frowned and turned around. No one.

Just in case, he shot snow in that direction with the cannon. Nothing.

He looked at the ground. No footprints but his own.

Then a truckload of snow fell on his head.

"HEY!" he shouted. His voice was muffled by the snow. "Hrrmmm…" he grumbled, and pushed the snow off. He quickly walked out of the area. He almost succeeded.

About ¾ of the way there, the ground broke and he fell in another pile of snow. "THAT DOES IT!!"

He heard laughing. Pissed, he aimed his snow cannon at the sky.

FOOM!

There was a thump as something fell. More laughing, and then the thing that fell became visible. It was Milo.

His black hair was everywhere, snow was plastered to his clothes, and it was probably all down his back, but he was still chortling loudly.

Koran shot more snow into the sky. Four more thumps, and then the others were visible.

"Hey, be thankful we didn't wait to use explosives" said Sarah with a wicked grin.

Koran used this face: -_O

I don't know how to describe that face.

"Explosives?"

Nora looked at her watch. "Oh, I've got to go pick them up. Marcus, come on."

They took off. The other four kids decided to take a break and go watch TV.

While they were watching Family Guy reruns, Sarah had a sly idea. She "disappeared" for a few minutes and came back with some cabbage stew. Then she went into the room directly above Milo, Silas, and Koran, and cut a hole in the floor.

Right above Koran's head.

Hoo boy.

She grabbed a sheet of light metal and bent it into a cylinder. Then she whispered a **Seal** and an **Enlarge**.

Sarah lowered the cylinder so that it was directly over Koran's head. If the others noticed, they didn't care. Then she poured the cabbage soup into the cylinder.

SPLAT!

"AAAAH!"

The two boys were roaring with laughter as Koran spit cold cabbage stew out of his mouth. Sarah jumped down from the hole and promptly fell over laughing.

Koran turned to face her. Furious, he pointed at her. "YOU!" he yelled. "YOU SUCK!!"

Sarah managed to sit up, though she was still laughing.

Koran now proceeded to quote from Monty Python. "I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU ANYMORE, YOU EMPTY-HEADED ANIMAL! I FART IN YOUR GENERAL DIRECTION!!"

Sarah fell over again, and the boys started kicking out wildly as their laughing came in short bursts.

Koran continued shouting. "YOUR MOTHER IS A HAMSTER AND YOUR FATHER SMELT OF ELDERBERRIES!"

He panted for a moment, then stuck his finger in Sarah's face and yelled "I! HATE! _YOU_!!!!"

Then he ran out and slammed the door.

Milo and Silas finally got up and recovered from near hyperventilation. "So, yeah, that was uncalled for, but incredibly hilarious" gasped Silas. Sarah grinned, then her face fell. "I wonder if he was really mad."

Meanwhile, Koran had rolled in the snow to get the cabbage stew off of him, then went into the house. He found a bathroom and toweled off. Then he slapped his forehead. He had left his shirt on the deck.

Carefully, he wrapped the towel around him and went out of the bathroom quietly. He just rounded a corner when he ran into Sarah.

Let me again use an emoticon to describe his face: ._.

He blinked.

Then he screamed. Screamed and screamed until he fainted with a THUD.

Sarah looked down, then she shrugged. "He's the maid's problem now."

* * *

**A/N: Awkward moments, plz? :3**

**I have actually never seen Monty Python XD I may rent it tonight, though.  
Koran hates homework. I do too.  
Oh, yush, I may begin Nightmares soon. I haven't found any other MxJ (Michael Jackson XD) shippers, though D:  
I have decided that my friends Cassidy and Nicole will share a birthday with Milo and Sarah. I actually just forgot their birthday D: I know it's sometime in Spring, though. I'll ask them Monday.  
I've also decided to reply to my reviewers via story! So if you review, I will thank you and perhaps start a conversation :D**

**Until next time I update, reviews are lovee,**

**Skye/Mija/10**

**P.S. 10 is my "9" dog fursie :3 I just made her up today. She's awesome.  
**


	17. Author's Note gonna rewrite this!

**Hey guys! Oh god, I really hope this fandom isn't dead. D:**

**Wow, I can't believe it's been 3 years. I'm going into my freshman year in high school and I figured now would be an appropriate time to leave this message after a few months of work.**

**Reading back on this story..I love it. Okay, I don't love all of it. I think the main thing people (and I) liked was the concept, and the characters, and my little 12-year-old mistake was rushing into the plot and not developing these characters. I lost quite a bit of the story back when I abandoned it, so I'll be rewriting the whole thing on my new account, ****Skyecraft.**** (Yes, I love Minecraft, sue me. And my name's Skye. Woot woot.) **

**Anyway, it won't be completely re-written - I like just about everything up to the 11th or 12th chapter of this story. It was about then that I started running out of ideas. xD So what I'll be doing is running through and touching up the earlier chapters, correcting grammar and spelling issues, working on sentence structure, and not being so glaringly obvious about plot points.**

**ALSO. I first had the idea for and wrote this story after ****Queste, ****and created a future headcanon from there. ****_This will not change. _****Yes, I loved ****Syren ****and ****Darke, ****but I'm just not sure if what occurred in those books could go well with the original ideas I had for these crazy kids. I'll probably re-read the entire series and figure stuff out from there, but if you read the new version and go, "What? This can't happen because such-and-such happened in -insert book title here-!" the reason for that is because I'm gonna be a dork and cling to the past and my first ideas for this story. **

**I'm also dreadfully sorry for not posting this, like, a year earlier. I've been wanting to continue (hah) work on this story for AGES. I just completely fell in love with Sarah and Koran and everybody and I don't want to let them go just yet. ene Also, fair warning for the rewritten version - now that I know what being a teenager is LIKE, instead of just reading about it, there's gonna be a buttload of cursing, sexual tension, and dirty jokes. (Blame my 8th grade lunch table.) :'D Hope that's okay with y'all!**

**So if you're still interested, please go ahead and keep an eye on ****Skyecraft**** - the first, TOTALLY AWESOME, rewritten chapter of ****It Continues**** will be uploaded as soon as possible. (AKA, as soon as I finish music camp, go to and return from vacation with one of my bros, and/or find some free time in between watching South Park and How I Met Your Mother and playing vidjama games.) Give me, like, a week, and I'll have two or three chapters up for you all to enjoy once again. c:**

**I also wanted to thank everyone who ever enjoyed this story. I know this has been a really long message so I'll be fast. You guys who followed and faved and reviewed this old piece of crap, you are what inspired me to get up off my lazy ass, stop attempting to write Style fics, and resume work on something people actually liked. THANK YOU! PLATONIC HUGS AND EUROPEAN KISSES TO YOU ALL!**

**Now this is Skye, signing off. :D Hope to see you soon!**


	18. another note: rewrite is up!

So I hate to be that one asshole who constantly updates her old shit with her new shit, but **the brand new, super fantastic, updated version of ****It**** Continues is now uploaded here.**

I would greatly appreciate feedback on this, as it's the first story I've posted anywhere in about four years. There are two chapters right now, and the third will be up sometime this weekend.

Find it at /s/8735556.

Thanks so much to my former followers for everything, and I hope to see you there.

Cheers,

-Skye


End file.
